President Donald Trump said Friday he would “absolutely” impose tariffs on the European Union, which he said had treated the U.S. “terribly.”
The announcement came hours after the White House announced tariffs against Canada, China, and Mexico that were set to go into effect Saturday.
During an Oval Office press conference to end the week, Trump was asked if he would impose tariffs on imports from the E.U.
Trump replied:
Am I going to impose tariffs on the European Union? Do you want the truthful answer, or should I give you the political answer? Absolutely. Absolutely. The European Union has treated us so terribly.
Another reporter raised concerns Trump’s tariffs or tariff threats could raise the prices of basic goods.
“You promised Americans to try to reduce costs,” the reporter noted before asking Trump, “How would you expect to have prices come down if you make such a broad plan for tariffs at? The president responded:
Let me just tell you, I got elected for a lot of reasons. Number one was the border, number two was inflation, because I had almost no inflation, and yet I charged hundreds of millions of dollars of tariffs to countries. And to think of it, I had almost no inflation and took in $600 billion of money from other countries and tariffs don’t cause inflation they cause success. They cause big success.
Trump said there could be some “temporary short-term disruption.”
“People will understand,” he added.
After criticizing the Biden administration on trade, Trump said, “The word tariff is a very misunderstood word. You’ve heard me say I say it, kiddingly, it is one of the most beautiful words in the dictionary. It really is.”
Watch above via Fox News.
