President Donald Trump called into CNBC on Monday to make it clear that he is not backing off his tariff strategy in dealing with China and other countries, apparently energized days after he announced a border security deal with Mexico.
“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,” Trump said during an impromptu phone interview on “Squawk Box. “
Trump said his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico encouraged the country to agree to stronger immigration enforcement, and predicted that the strategy would be successful with China as well.
“The China deal is going to work out. You know why? Because of tariffs. Because right now China is getting absolutely decimated by countries that are leaving China, going to other countries, including our own,” Trump said.
China, he said, is “going to make a deal because they’re going to have to make a deal. “
The complete details of the agreement reached between the U.S. and Mexico have not yet been released. In a joint declaration issued Friday evening, the two countries wrote that Mexico would take “unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration, to include the deployment of its National Guard throughout Mexico.”
The New York Times, citing officials from both countries, reported that the deal largely includes measures that Mexico had already agreed to before Trump’s tariff threat.
Trump on Monday also took swipes at business groups, particularly the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that have criticized tariffs.
The Chamber of Commerce, Trump said, “is probably more for the companies and the people that are members than they are for our country.”
Trump’s phone call appeared to be a response to an interview on CNBC earlier in the day with Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Brilliant critiqued what he called the “weaponization of tariffs, ” which he said “is going to hurt our country.”
Foreign policy experts have also raised concerns that Trump might end up relying on tariffs too much, potentially risking America’s economic power.
“It remains to be seen – in Mexico, China and beyond – how much Trump will gain through his unique willingness to use economic weapons,” Atlantic Council CEO Fred Kempe wrote in a CNBC column. “What’s clear already is that friends and rivals are more interested than ever before in exploring alternatives to the U.S.-dominated system.”
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