Critics mocked President Donald Trump‘s strange new economic claim as he insisted that cutting off key trade partners would not only save Americans billions, but would also turn the United States into a “major money machine.”
Trump began by complaining about the Federal Reserve – America’s version of the Bank of England – for not cutting interest rates.
“We should have the lowest interest rates in the world,” he said, then griped that other countries have lower interest rates “only because of us, because they do business with us.”
He said the United States has the right to fight back with trade restrictions.
“They would go from a so-called elite country to a poverty-stricken country,” he said, adding:
“You take certain countries, I don’t want to mention any, but countries that you consider great, and they’re paying a half a point. All right? A half a point. But they make $40 billion a year with the United States. If they don’t make the 40 billion ― and we don’t need their product, doesn’t have to, we really don’t need their product ― so we cut off trade with that country, we just made 40 billion dollars, and you do a few countries like that and we become a big money machine.”
There’s a flaw with Trump’s logic, however: Americans in most cases still need to purchase those products, and his tariffs ― and retaliatory tariffs from other nations ― will make them more expensive.
Trump didn’t name Canada during the Oval Office aside, but seemed to have them on his mind given his escalating trade war with the nation. Trump has accused Canada of “ripping us off for decades” as he defended his newest wave of tariffs.
Canada, in turn, responded with dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs that will likely hurt U.S. businesses that send goods north.
The result would seem to be anything but the “big money machine” Trump claimed it would be, as his critics quickly pointed out on X:
Please understand that this is a total moron. That is not a political opinion. This guy's brain is gone. If you think that this guy is in any way a leader or remotely intelligent, you are even dumber than he is. https://t.co/Oe1nVDOajX
Extremely not how it works https://t.co/KrTemXFOXT
This is stupid. That’s it. It’s stupid. https://t.co/cqcLflk120
I stopped trading with my grocery store and saved $600 a month but also I starved to death. https://t.co/MboQ967d0O
Idiot and then some https://t.co/kTZJDStKZ1
Source: Read the original article on www.huffingtonpost.co.uk
