Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo challenged President Donald Trump over his inconsistent tariff policies, insisting that CEOs are not happy with the lack of “predictability” on international trade presented by his administration so far.
While Bartiromo confronted Trump in an entirely civil and respectful manner, it was something of a stunning pivot on an economic issue, particularly from a political media personality who has long presented a very pro-Trump perspective, going so far as to even report that she had an intel source tell her that Trump actually won the 2020 election that he lost.
Bartiromo sat with Trump in the White House for an interview set to air on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News at 10 a.m. On Friday, Bartiromo aired a back-and-forth over tariffs.
The Fox Business anchor recalled that Trump had previously explained the tariffs to her, quoting him as saying, “I did it because I could. I put an amendment in there. And I said in six years, I can change it.”
“But I think CEOs want to see predictability,” she added. “They say, ‘Look, I have to speak with shareholders. I’ve got to make plans for CapEx spending. I can’t if it’s 20% one day and then it’s off for a month and it’s 25%.’ So can you give us a sense of whether or not we are going to get clarity for the business community?”
“Well, I think so,” Trump replied. “But you know, the tariffs could go up as time goes by and they may go up. And you know I don’t know if it’s predictability, I think.”
“That’s not clarity,” Bartirmo interjected.
“I think that they say that you know it sounds good to say. But for years the globalists, the big globalists, have been ripping off the United States,” Trump added. “They’ve been taking money away from the United States. And all we’re doing is getting some of it back, and we’re going to treat our country fairly.”
Bartiromo: He spoke to the president of Mexico today. I do think that tariffs because even as you’re seeing this optimism and excitement, there’s some nervousness over your tariffs. Markets have been selling off. People are not sure how to view it. Why did you roll back or put a pause into some of the tariffs until April 2nd?
Trump: Because they wanted to help Mexico and Canada to a certain extent. We’re a big, big country and they do a lot of their business with us. Whereas in our case it’s much less significant. We do very little with candidate by comparison. And I wanted to help the American car makers until April 2nd. April 2nd. It becomes all reciprocal. What? They charge us. We charge them. It’s a big deal. But what they charge us, we charge them. But this is short term. And I felt that for the good of the American carmakers and the MCA. You know what? What the Usmca. What? It’s Mexico. Canada. I thought it would be a fair thing to do. And so I gave them a little bit of a break for this short period of time.
Bartiromo: But I asked you about this before, and I know you told me when I asked, you said you did. You use it. You put this together? Yeah. And yet then you come back and you change it up with these tariffs. And you said to me at that time, I did it because I can. I put an amendment in there. And I said in six years I can change it. But I think CEOs want to see predictability. They say, look, I have to speak with shareholders. I’ve got to make plans for CapEx spending. I can’t if it’s 20% one day and then it’s off for a month and it’s 25%. So can you give us a sense of whether or not we are going to get clarity for the business community?
Trump: Well, I think so. But you know, the tariffs could go up as time goes by and they may go up. And you know I don’t know if it’s predictability I think.
Bartiromo: That’s not clarity.
Trump: No I think I think that they say that you know it sounds good to say. But for years the globalists the big globalists have been ripping off the United States. They’ve been taking money away from the United States. And all we’re doing is getting some of it back, and we’re going to treat our country fairly. This country has been ripped off from every every nation in the world, every company outside in the world. We’ve been ripped off at levels never seen before. And all we’re going to do is get it back. We’re going to get a lot of it back. We’re not going to let people take advantage of us anymore.
Watch above via Fox Business.
