In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that aired on Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump stated that he “can’t guarantee anything” when questioned about whether his proposed tariffs would lead to higher prices for American families.
“I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” Trump said, when host Kristen Welker asked if he can guarantee American families won’t pay more under his tariff plan. “But I can say that if you looked at my — just pre-Covid, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And I had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries, but in particular China.” He added, “We took in hundreds of billions of dollars and we had no inflation. In fact, when I handed it over, they didn’t have inflation for a year and a half.”
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Trump also added that he is a “big believer in tariffs” and noted that the United States is subsidizing countries like Canada and Mexico. “We shouldn’t be — why are we subsidizing these countries?” he said.
“I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they’re beautiful. It’s going to make us rich,” Trump said. “If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state. We’re subsidizing Mexico and we’re subsidizing Canada and we’re subsidizing many countries all over the world. And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field.”
Welker pointed out to Trump that during his first administration, tariffs resulted in a cost of about $80 billion for Americans, and noted that large companies like Walmart had warned these tariffs would lead to price hikes. Trump, however, disagreed, arguing that tariffs “cost Americans nothing” and were a key factor in making the economy stronger. He also claimed that tariffs played a role in addressing international conflicts.
“They have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used. I don’t say you use them like a madman. I say properly used,” Trump said. “But it didn’t cost this country anything. It made this country money.”
Trump also mentioned that he never had the opportunity to fully implement his tariff strategy because the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his final year in office.
“When I handed it over to Biden, the stock market was higher than what it was just previous to Covid coming in. It was actually higher,” Trump said. “Tariffs are a — properly used, are a very powerful tool, not only economically, but also for getting other things outside of economics.”
