President Trump said Americans should’ve expected the chaos that has come from his tariffs and the upheaval of the economy.
In an interview with ABC News that aired Tuesday, Mr. Trump was asked by anchor Terry Moran how he would respond to voters who say they didn’t sign up for the trade war with China.
Mr. Trump argued that “they did sign up for it, actually.”
“This is what I campaigned on. I said that we’ve been abused by other countries at levels that nobody’s ever seen before. We were losing $3 to 5 billion a day on trade. We were losing a trillion and a half to $2 trillion a year. Not sustainable.”
Mr. Trump imposed a 145% tariff on most Chinese goods exported to the United States. China countered the tariffs by putting a 125% levy on U.S. imports, while making exceptions for certain critical products.
The president also argued that he has gotten prices down since taking office for the second time in January, especially eggs, which he says was a main complaint.
“They hit me the first week, ‘Eggs, eggs, eggs,’ like it was my fault. I said, ‘I didn’t cause this problem. This problem was caused by Biden. What’s the problem with eggs? And they said, ‘They’ve doubled it’ Well, eggs are down 87% since I got involved,” he said.
He said he didn’t think hard times are ahead — only “great times.”
“Look, since I came in gasoline is down, groceries are down, egg prices are down – many things are down, just about everything,” he said.
Mr. Trump has been optimistic about reaching a trade deal with China and has claimed the country has called to make one, though Chinese officials have claimed otherwise.
