On Sunday, President Donald Trump appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and declared that his tariffs will make the United States one wealthy nation.
Trump exclaimed, “The tariffs are going to make us rich. We’ll be a very rich country.”
NBC host Kristen Welker said, “At your cabinet meeting, you said, ‘Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls would cost a couple of bucks more than you would normally.’ Are you saying that the tariffs will cause some prices to go up?”
Trump replied, “No, I think the tariffs will be great for us because it will make us rich.”
Welker pressed, “You said some dolls will cost more. Isn’t that an acknowledgment will make prices to go up?”
Trump continued, “I don’t think a beautiful baby girl that’s 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls. They can have three or four dolls. What we were doing with China is unbelievable. We lost hundreds of billions with China.”
Welker asked, “When you say three dolls or 30 dolls, will Americans see empty store shelves?”
Trump responded, “No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying they don’t need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don’t need 250 pencils. They can have five.”
Welker said, “You are basically saying there could be supply shortages.”
Trump retorted, “I’m saying we don’t need to waste money on a trade deficit with China for things we don’t need, for junk we don’t need.”