The interview was an opportunity for Trump to speak to businesspeople, a crowd he appeared comfortable with as polls show voters trust him more on the economy than Vice President Harris.
Trump clashed with Bloomberg’s John Micklethwait over the impacts of tariffs that Trump has pledged to wield aggressively if elected in November.
The former president has for months vowed to impose sweeping tariffs on imports and U.S. companies that outsource manufacturing. But Tuesday marked a rare instance where he faced real-time pushback over the potential consequences.
Micklethwait noted Trump’s plans would essentially halt trade with China, place at least a 10 percent tariff on European nations and drastically impact the U.S. economy, where 40 million jobs rely on trade.
“It’s going to have a massive effect — positive effect. It’s going to be a positive effect,” Trump responded. “It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong.”
Micklethwait argued that the gravest risk with tariffs would be on foreign policy, essentially hitting allies with economic penalties.
“How does it help you take on China turning all of your allies against you?” he asked.
Trump was unmoved.
“Tremendously, because China thinks we’re a stupid country,” Trump said. “They can’t believe somebody finally got wise to them.”
The Hill’s Brett Samuels has more here.
