In a CNBC Squawk Box telephone interview, Trump romanticized tariffs as a “beautiful thing” that countries with money should use. He said “People haven’t used tariffs, but tariffs are a beautiful thing when you are the piggy bank, when you have all the money. Everyone is trying to get our money”. He also touted boasted that “If we didn’t have tariffs we wouldn’t have made a deal with Mexico” on migration problem of the US.
He’s also confidence that the China trade deal is going to work out “Because of tariffs. Because right now China is getting absolutely decimated by countries that are leaving China, going to other countries, including our own.” China is “going to make a deal because they’re going to have to make a deal, ” Trump added.
Yet, he praised China’s system as “the head of the Fed in China is President Xi” and “He can do whatever he wants. They devalue.” They loosen”. He added, “They devalue their currency. They have for years. It’s put them at a tremendous advantage”. On the other hand, “we don’t have that advantage because we have a Fed that doesn’t lower interest rates.”
Trump said the Fed “certainly didn’t listen to me because they made a big mistake. They raised interest rates far too fast,” and he went on to chide them for hiking “the day before a bond issue goes out so we have to pay more money.” He certainly believed in a system that central banks work for the countries leader, instead of independently.
