On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated that China paying 55% tariffs is “pretty good” and we don’t need a deal with them and “We didn’t feel it” when tariffs were at 145%.
Host Laura Ingraham asked, [relevant exchange begins around 3:25] “[W]hen we look at what’s happened with China, for instance, China is having real problems with its manufacturing right now. They don’t have anywhere to sell to…so, some would argue that you don’t really need a deal with China. … [W]hy just not have the tariffs in place? Why do we need a deal with China? They need to sell to us, right? They need to sell to us more than, really, we need to sell to them. I don’t trust that they’d buy a lot of our products right now.”
Lutnick answered, “We didn’t feel it, right? Remember when it was 145%, did you feel it? But I’ll tell you what, their factories were closing all over the place. So, Donald Trump understands, he doesn’t need to do a deal with China. The idea is we’ve got a 30% tariff on them for this term, 25 from his last term so they’re paying 55%. And you know what he is thinking? That’s pretty good. Let’s just stay calm, stay cool.”
Ingraham then said, “I, frankly, don’t want a deal. I think it’s working really well now,” and Lutnick responded, “Agree.”
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