Bloomberg Exclusive Interview with Trump: Tax Cuts, Energy, and the Emerging Cryptocurrency
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Bloomberg Exclusive Interview with Trump: Tax Cuts, Energy, and the Emerging Cryptocurrency
Trump discussed the Federal Reserve, inflation, tax cuts, tariffs, Taiwan, and his relationship with CEOs.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Nancy Cook, Joshua Green, Mario Parker, Brad Stone and Gregory Korte
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek
Translation: DeThings
Editor’s note: On June 25—two days before the 2024 presidential debate and about two weeks before an attempted assassination—former U.S. President Donald Trump was interviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Focusing on business and the global economy, Trump discussed the Federal Reserve, inflation, tax cuts, tariffs, Taiwan, and his relationships with CEOs. The interview was conducted by Bloomberg senior reporters Nancy Cook and Joshua Green, executive editor Mario Parker, and Businessweek editor Brad Stone. What follows is a transcript, lightly edited for clarity, with fact-checking notes by Gregory Korte. Broadly divided into 22 questions.
1. Bloomberg Businessweek: Thank you for having us. I want to start with a big question: From the perspective of innovation, opportunity, and global competitiveness, what kind of economy do you want America to have?
Trump: I think manufacturing is a big thing. Every person who runs for office says you’ll never do manufacturing again.
We have currency issues, you know. Currency. When I was president, I had very tough fights with President Xi Jinping and with Abe, who was a great guy—and actually, you know this story.
So we have serious currency issues because the current strength—strong dollar, weak yen, weak yuan—is enormous. I fought them, you know—they always wanted the dollar lower. They’d push back, I’d say, if you devalue again, I’m going to have to put tariffs on you. They pulled out all the stops against me, but I was very tough on it. Now nobody talks about it. And that differential—you know, our interest rate spread is the largest in, I think they said, 38 years. That’s a huge burden for companies trying to sell tractors and other products abroad. It’s a massive burden.
One of the things I worked hardest on was keeping their currencies strong. Because we’ve never had this differential before.
I think something very bad will happen soon. I keep talking to manufacturers who say we can’t get anything; no one wants to buy our products because prices are too high. Look at Komatsu and these tractor companies. They make good products, but you know—it forces Caterpillar and others, who already have many overseas plants, but it forces them to build in other countries, which is exactly what other countries want. It’s also how we should differently want—we should want it, we must have it—but I think you’ll see some very bad numbers within the next year. It takes time to manifest. But the gap between the dollar and the yen, the dollar and the yuan, is unbelievably large. The dollar is high, and theirs are low. I always notice they go to tremendous lengths to keep their currency low.
It doesn’t sound good, but from what they do and making products, that’s how Japan built itself up. China did the same. I think we’re in a very bad position.
Did President Biden contribute anything to the economy? Do you have any praise for him?
Trump: Look, I’d love to. I’d love to see him… but I just feel everything he’s done is the opposite of what should be done. I’m not against electric vehicles—electric vehicles. I think they’re great. Elon [Musk, CEO of Tesla] is great. I think they’re great.
I drive them a lot; they’re great. But you can’t have 100% of cars electric. We can’t electrify cities. We’re way behind on basic technology, but that’s not true. These cars don’t go far enough. They’re extremely expensive. They’re also heavy. You know, they weigh much more. They want to go to electric trucks. If you do electric trucks, roughly twice as much, because I’ve dealt with the truck industry a lot. They weigh two-and-a-half times as much as the diesel equivalent. Who would’ve thought? You’d have to rebuild bridges and infrastructure—they can’t handle the weight—they weigh so much more than diesel or gasoline, batteries and everything else are heavier. So, I mean, these are serious problems. You saw last week they announced $8 billion for seven chargers. Seven. Seven chargers. Like pumps at gas stations. They built seven chargers. They spent $8 billion, which might only be one percent or one-thousandth of what you need.
I’ve seen reports saying if you want to electrify this country, the country would have to go bankrupt. It would take $5 trillion to have the number of chargers needed. These things aren’t complicated, but they don’t even want to talk about them, you know? They say car companies—just keep building cars, we don’t care—they want 50% EV market share by 2030, even more than that—75% by 2032. 75%. It’s not feasible. Not sustainable—by the way, they give massive subsidies, but nobody really knows. But you’re talking trillions of dollars. We now have hundreds of thousands of EVs that aren’t selling, yet you don’t hear car companies complain. Normally, if a car isn’t selling, you know, it becomes the front page of Businessweek. Right? But they’re not selling, and car companies are happy. The level of subsidies they receive is unprecedented.
2. I’d like to ask you about inflation. Inflation has hurt Biden politically. Partly due to the pandemic, partly due to his stimulus plans. What would you do differently?
Inflation was caused by energy. And what he did was immediately start cutting my energy. We brought it down to a level—and at certain points, we brought it down to $1.50. It was somewhat artificial because we had the pandemic, and we changed a lot of things due to the pandemic. You had the pandemic period, then the rest of the time. But we got prices down to $1.87. Our prices were very, very low and performed well, and not during abnormal times.
When he came in, he really started cutting prices. I mean, he got rid of ANWR. Reagan wanted it. Getting ANWR was his biggest dream. Because in terms of capacity in Alaska, ANWR could be the size of Saudi Arabia.
He ended all of that, and it was terrible what he did. But ANWR and basically letting people know regulations, rules, regulations, everything—I cut more regulations than any president in history, and I got the biggest tax cut—bigger than any president, including second-place Ronald Reagan. We got huge tax cuts and incentives, you know, one-year tax cuts. People, they loved it. We had it pre-pandemic, and then we went back to stock markets actually higher.
When I handed over the presidency, the stock market was much higher than before the pandemic, the China virus, or Covid, whatever you want to call it—there are many different names—but the stock market was three times higher than during that period, which was a tough time, nobody knew, nobody knew anything. What’s happening? I always say I did very well on that, but I never got credit. I got credit for a great economy. I got credit for what we did militarily, no wars, no. Russia didn’t take anything from us, but they took a lot from others. That might be something you want to discuss later. But you know, the whole Ukraine thing was terrible—and also caused by oil, because you know, when oil goes to $100 a barrel instead of $40, he can wage war. At $40 a barrel, whether he listened to me or not, he wouldn’t go to war. I don’t care about the cause. Now we have double incentive, very expensive oil. He’s the only one making money during the war, because he does make money. The numbers are shocking. To a large extent, the war pushes prices up. So in one case, you want cheap energy, but in another, you want to end the war, but you can’t end the war at $100 because at $100, his motivation to end the war isn’t great. So we have a whole set of macro issues, which are also micro issues, they go deep into micro issues. Ultimately, the result is chaos in the world. We may eventually—I have to get that hat. To an aide nearby: “Can you have her bring me that new hat?” The hat reads: “Trump Was Right.”
3. While we wait for the hat, can I ask you another question? As you know, the Fed controls interest rates. If re-elected, would you let Jerome Powell serve out his term until 2028? (Powell’s four-year term as chair of the Federal Reserve Board ends in May 2026. His 14-year term on the board ends in January 2028.)
Yes, I would. There’s a lot of misinformation about this. I had fights with him. But no, I would, I would have him stick around, especially if I thought he was doing the right thing. Now, you have to keep rates steady until the economy recovers, then rates come down. Inflation is the scourge of a nation. It’s interesting. You study inflation more than I do, but I’ve studied a lot of inflation. Look back at Germany, look back at many nations, inflation ultimately destroys a country. So you know, you can’t do it. They have a dream, they want to lower rates, but they’re very tough now. Now, I’d have a plan to reduce costs. Not necessarily interest. Costs. Because if you can reduce costs, you can lower rates.
But now rates are high, it’s hard for them. I know they want to try to do it. Maybe they’ll do it before the election, before November 5, even though they know they shouldn’t.
4. Sir, do you think they should delay lowering rates? Do you think they should wait until after the election to lower rates?
Unless they cut other costs equivalent to interest, interest is a very big cost. So it’s difficult. But yes, there: I have a plan to offset it by cutting energy. Energy. We could cut energy dramatically. You know, I always say we have more flowing gold under our feet, and it’s true. We have more flowing gold than anyone. If we could access energy—energy is such a big cost, interest is such a big cost. But you know, interest is a bit self-defeating because we have to pay bonds. Bonds are just, they’re eating us alive, interest payments. I used to say, when we had 1% or less on bonds or things, I’d say: “Can you imagine if we paid” you know, at 1%, it sort of worked.
Speaking of that, the gentleman on the cover “Trump referring to the July 2024 issue of Businessweek featuring Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, sitting on a nearby coffee table,” he’s a great guy, I think he’s a friend of mine, I don’t know if you’ve asked him this question?
Trump: I haven’t. But he’s a friend. He’s great. His son is great too. But he bought Tiffany. I said, what rate? Oh, well, they actually paid me. So he was one of the few private individuals who could get Tiffany, he bought Tiffany at the price he paid. Then he renegotiated the price. But he said, well, my deal was so good. I mean, they lent me money, they actually paid me.
Let me get you guys a Coke. Are you coming in? Who wants something? Anyone? A little Coke? Coke and Diet Coke. About Diet Coke, one thing I’ll say is, I’ve never seen a skinny person drink Diet Coke. No, always Diet Coke. I say this friendly. But people drink Diet Coke, I’ve never seen a skinny person drink it. Never. These people come in ordering regular Coke, they’re skinny. I don’t know what’s going on? So go ahead.
5. If re-elected, what would you do to encourage the Fed to lower rates faster?
Well, you have to lower other costs, not suffer inflation. Inflation, it really, really, really… (An aide brings a red MAGA hat) This is just, someone just sent it.
Q: Do you wear that?
I’ll tell you first, someone just gave it to me. Did you see that, Jason (senior adviser Miller)? So I have to start wearing it. But you can do other things with rates. Now, one of the things happening is millions of immigrants pouring in, costing the nation a fortune, plus so much else. It’s a new phenomenon. I’d say, you know, some say 16 million, 17 million, some say 9 million, 10 million. Nine million, ten million versus 17 million is far apart. It could be more, maybe over 17 million. Could be 20 million, but by the time this figure, certainly when this worst president in the history of the country leaves office, it will hit 20 million. He’s destroying our country. By the time he’s gone, hopefully he’s gone. If he’s not gone, I think you can shut down Businessweek, because I think it’s worthless. I think the whole country will go downhill. You know, there’s a theory that because we’re doing well in polls. It seems when we’re doing well in polls, the market goes up.
Scott (CEO of Key Square Capital Management LLC), they say the only reason the market is doing well is because I’m doing well in polls and I’m going to be president. But many think that, including some of the best, most optimistic people, but still. I think rates are very low now.
It’s very hard to get money, you know, when our mortgage rates were 2.6%, people bought a lot of houses. Now it’s effectively 9 or 10. But actually, the number should be higher than that because you can’t get money. So if you can’t get money, the number is higher than 9 or 10. The number is high—9 or 10. It makes a huge difference because people just—that’s called the American Dream. They want to be able to buy a house. But they can’t afford homes.
6. President Biden kept many of your tariffs on China. He pushed for American-made steel and invested billions to rebuild American manufacturing and energy. Do you plan to repeal the entire Inflation Reduction Act, or only parts of it?
First, he came up with the Inflation Reduction Act, which is misnamed. It increased inflation, didn’t reduce it. They actually admitted, after they got the money, they shouldn’t have gotten it. I wasn’t there. They shouldn’t have gotten it, they didn’t need it. We needed the money I originally got, otherwise we wouldn’t have a country. We’d be in a depression unlike anything since 1929. Nothing worse than that. But if you don’t do that, then the Inflation Reduction Act—they named it to get it passed. Then after they got the money, I think they actually renamed it, but it has nothing to do with reducing inflation. It has more to do with the green new scam, which is what it really is.
No, now we have to go back to basics. We need cheap energy. Compared to almost every country, including very big ones, we have more energy than anyone. We have more real energy, usable energy. Wind doesn’t work. It’s too expensive. If you look at per kilowatt-hour, you can measure it different ways, any way you measure it, but look at wind cost versus natural gas cost, natural gas is clean, we have so much—we waste it into the air. But if you look at wind cost, it’s too expensive. Look at solar cost. Look at some solar, I believe in solar, but it takes up too much space. It’s completely unreliable, you know, it only works in certain areas with lots of sun, bright and constant. I looked at a big solar area. It’s miles high, you know, they talk about environment. This thing is several square miles, very big.
You say, is this good?
You know what windmills are? I think they’re very harmful. People think they’re green on energy, which always surprises me. They like wind, I think they like wind because it sounds nice. But I see windmills—you go to California and other places where windmills have been running a while. They don’t last long. You know people forget, you have to constantly rebuild them. It’s not like you have it and it’s fine. They last eight or nine years. And offshore windmills are especially corroded by seawater. They keep replacing them, you know, when they take them down, they repair them. Blades are made of carbon material, they say environmentally they can’t bury them. They don’t know what to do with the blades. But you look at some places in California, they installed these for a while, then they put new ones next to old ones, different color and shape, looks absolutely like a junkyard. It’s terrible, if you face windmills or live near them, your home value is way below what it should be. But it’s very unreliable. We have to go back to basics, we have to go back to the beginning, you know, Germany tried this. Germany used to do this, now they’re building hundreds of coal plants, I think they’re continuing nuclear too. But we have to go back to sanity.
7. So, Mr. President, will you repeal the act? Ironically, some funds flow to red states.
You mean, tear down some things already built? Like wind?
Under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The problem with wind is it needs massive subsidies. When I was president, sitting next to me was a big guy. We had the 40 biggest businessmen in Europe. The man next to me, his only job was energy and windmills and things like that. He said: “No, we’re getting out of the windmill business.” I’ll never forget. He said: “I’m getting out of the windmill business because they need subsidies. You can’t build them without subsidies.” You see, if you look at New Jersey, they planned to build windmills, huge scale, kept giving more and more subsidies, but in the end they didn’t build them. The whole project was canceled, big deal, people in New Jersey were thrilled. It was a joint effort. But wind energy is unbelievably expensive. Needs subsidies. This man said: “I never want to be involved in any form of energy that needs subsidies.” He said wind needs massive subsidies.
8. Back to China, economists say tariffs of about 60% on China would end US-China trade relations entirely. What does that mean for companies like Nvidia, Qualcomm, Apple, which have supply chains in China and support our competitiveness and AI?
You know, my rate at the time was 50%, I never heard of a 60% rate. Everyone says, look at Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, oh look what happened. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act was passed after the Great Depression started. So if you go back, I tell you to read William McKinley. William McKinley made this country rich. He’s the most underrated president. His successor took the money. Roosevelt took the money, built parks and dams. But McKinley made the money, he was truly the tariff king. I’m not saying this based on knowing him, although I learned about him afterward.
Tariffs have two purposes. Economically, tariffs are amazing. Many will say, oh that’s terrible. When you say that, it’s very dangerous because you might have your own view, and there are many. I can’t believe so many smart people oppose tariffs. There are two benefits: economically, it’s great. And it’s good for negotiation. I’ve met countries possibly hostile to me who came and said: “Sir, please stop the tariffs. Stop.” They’d do anything. Unrelated to economics, they’d do—you know, besides economics, we have other things, like let’s not go to war. Or I don’t want you to go to war elsewhere.
9. For the companies Mario mentioned, the big American companies supporting our competitiveness and AI, will you give them tariff exemptions like you did for Apple?
Yes, I worked with Apple.
I’ll tell you: Tim Cook, I found him a very good businessman. Others would hire people, pay them millions, lobbyists etc. to talk to me. Tim Cook, I didn’t know much about him. He’d call me, you know he’s chairman of Apple, “Can I come in and see you?” He’s chairman of Apple. I’d say that’s impressive. He came—at least I don’t know what it is now, but it’s the biggest company. I said, “Yes, come in.” He told me, “I need help,” your products have 25% and 50% tariffs depending on category. He said, “This will really hurt our business. It might destroy our business.” I said, “Why?” Because if you build here, you don’t pay tax. See, that’s the third thing it does, it incentivizes people to build here. I can tell you, I could talk about this all day. What we did was so stupid. You know, I have no problem with China. I have no problem with Russia. I have no problem with anyone. Because we, now, are a nation with strong economic power. We’re rapidly losing that power. Rapidly. We’re also losing our standard—we’re moving away from the dollar. Look, Iran’s gone, Russia’s gone, Saudi Arabia now says they’ll go with China and us.
10. Will you defend Taiwan from Chinese attack?
Look, there are several things. First, Taiwan. I know them well, respect them greatly. They took about 100% of our chip business. I think Taiwan should pay for our defense. You know, we’re no different from an insurance policy. Taiwan gives us nothing. Taiwan is 9,500 miles away. 68 miles from China. A slight advantage, China has vast land area, they can bomb it. They don’t even need to—they could just fire artillery. Now they don’t want to, because they don’t want to lose all those chip factories. You know, all these factories, they don’t want to. But I’ll tell you, that’s Xi Jinping’s crown jewel, before the pandemic he was my friend, but I really, you know, I, I don’t have the same feeling. Same with Putin.
I got along well with Putin, we had a good relationship. We never faced danger of war. He’d never enter Ukraine. I said, never enter Ukraine.
Oil prices. Too crazy. Oil prices too crazy, it’s always been his crown jewel. Same with China. It’s China’s crown jewel. It’s the crown jewel. It’s his crown jewel. But the day I left, they sent 28 bombers straight at the top two, and since then they’ve been very aggressive, their ships everywhere. If I were them, I wouldn’t feel so safe now, but remember: Taiwan took our chip business, I mean, how stupid are we? They took all our chip business. They’re very wealthy. I think we’re no different from an insurance policy. Why? Why would we do this?
11. When we talk about Russia and the Ukraine war…
(Interrupting) I just think we have to be smarter, but remember, 9,500 miles away. You have to double-load planes to get them there, by the time they arrive, they have to leave. But it’s a very, very difficult thing. The problem is, in three and a half years, China has aligned with Russia, Iran, and North Korea. North Korea has massive nukes. I can tell you. I don’t think it’s classified. They have a lot. The world is different from three and a half years ago. Three and a half years ago, we, you know, the worst thing we allowed was because Biden is a fool. He forced Russia and China to marry. They married. Then they took in their little cousin Iran, then they took in North Korea. They don’t need anyone else. They don’t need anyone else.
It’s a very, very dangerous world. I’m actually worried about the remaining five months. Yes, I think you could get into World War III. This man is extremely incompetent, his people are fascists, but they don’t know what they’re doing, so remember: I had no wars, no peace, no problems. We had no wars. Except ISIS, no other wars. I wiped them out in a short time. Someone told me it would take five years, I took almost no time, we knocked them down. We got (Quds Force commander Qasem) Soleimani, got (ISIS leader Abu Bakr) al-Baghdadi, Russia didn’t take any land. You know, it’s an interesting stat. They say Obama and Bush did, they can go back earlier. Every president took massive returns, meaning they could take, and I took nothing.
Now people write: oh, Trump, Trump. But that’s the fact. You know, it’s interesting. I laugh as I say it, we did very well. Didn’t get credit for it, but that’s okay, we did very well. All other presidents enjoyed the world. During my tenure, no one enjoyed the world. Iran went bankrupt. You wouldn’t have Israel. Iran had no money. They had $300 million left. I think they had less than $300 million left. If the election hadn’t been rigged, they’d have made a deal within a week, I’d have made a deal, basic agreement no nukes. I’d have made a great deal with them—no nukes.
But when I came in, I saw what was happening, they were on the path to nukes. I ended the Iran nuclear deal, which was very important because it was the dumbest deal. The problem is Biden did nothing. I ended it. He did nothing. But we should have made a deal. So they went bankrupt. They had no money for Hamas. They had no money for Hezbollah or any of the so-called 28 terrorist organizations.
They were all starving. By the time I left, there were rumors, in four years I didn’t have a terrorist attack. I can’t talk about it. Because I don’t want to say no attacks happened, then one happens, right? That’s not good. But during my tenure, we had no terrorist attacks.
They took almost 100% of our chip industry, I applaud them. Because stupid people ran this country. We shouldn’t have let that happen. Now we give them billions to build new chips here, and they’ll take that money too, in other words, they’ll build it, then take it back to their country.
12. Regarding Russia, as a businessman, you’ve talked about ending the Ukraine war. Have you considered easing or lifting sanctions on Russia as part of the Ukraine war settlement you mentioned?
Yes. So imposing sanctions forces everyone away from us. So I don’t like sanctions. I found sanctions useful against Iran, but I didn’t even need sanctions against Iran. I told China, same with Russia. I told China…I made people realize, I don’t think China is bad. But I made people realize, for 30 years, under various presidents, China has been looting this country, I’m the only one who made massive money, hundreds of billions, from China.
So much so that even Biden, bought by China, couldn’t cancel the tariffs because the inflow of money was just too great. And that was just the beginning. Just the beginning. But I told people, China is hurting us. China used money taken from America to build its military, right. So I think Gordon Chang (conservative commentator and China hawk) said the other day, Trump is the only one who understands China, he said a few interesting things. He said when he started tariffs, that massive inflow was cut, you know, we made massive money. I gave farmers $28 billion. They got $28 billion because China exploited our farmers. I gave them the money. So I won Iowa and other places.
13. You recently promised CEOs at a Business Roundtable meeting to cut the corporate tax rate from 21% to 20%, only one percentage point. Is that because…
(Interrupting) Because I like simplicity. I prefer 20%. I’d prefer 15%, but I think that would be hard.
Alright, my question is: Is that the limit? Is 20% the maximum tax cut you support? Or, as president, would you push for deeper cuts?
A 15% rate would get us to the lowest level. You see, when I implemented tax cuts, this place started booming. You know better than I, we got more revenue with much lower rates than with much higher rates. Nobody believed it. Everyone thought, oh well. That’s not how it works. You know, we had a system where you could bring money back from overseas. Nobody could bring money back. You’d have to hire 15 different accounting firms to bring it back, it was too complex. And the rate was too high.
They wouldn’t give up half their money to bring it back. Like Apple brought billions back to the US, then started building. I said, “I’ll do something for you, but you must build in this country.” I wanted them to build here. That’s another function of tariffs. If you tax corporations, they’ll build here because they don’t want to pay tariffs. You know, a bad thing is happening. A very bad thing is happening in Mexico. China is building large auto plants. They’ll put UAW out of work. They build in Mexico, produce cars for the US, what do we get from it?
If they build here, but our people are too stupid, in my era this wouldn’t happen, you know why? Why I stopped all this, they all moved to Mexico. They build in Mexico, no taxes, sell in the US. If I hadn’t stopped all this, you wouldn’t even have an auto industry.
Alright, since we’re on the topic of CEOs, “Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.” has emerged as a potential Treasury secretary in a second Trump administration. Is he someone you’re considering?
First, let me say one thing, I had a meeting with them. First, I had a meeting with Congress, Republican Congress. It was like a love fest, then I met with them, then I met with the US Senate, all Republicans, 49 of them. Also a love fest, but my three best meetings were with executives. Biden’s disinformation people brought up one thing: oh he kept talking, he rambled. No rambling. You could say it’s nonsense, but to get to the point, you have to, you know, it’s a very complex topic, many people, most don’t understand. But I just want to say, that was the best meeting. They loved it. They were satisfied. I mean, for example, I cut the rate from 39% to 21%. What’s not to like? Then I said, for simplicity, I want to round it to 20, I mean, whether you believe it or not, it makes sense, and it’s still a lot of money.
But if possible, I’d like to cut it to 15, because then our incentives would be at the absolute lowest level. But that meeting, we had 70 people, all CEOs, top people, it was a love fest, I’ll tell you when I’m not loved, because I feel better than anyone. But it was a love fest. Some reported it wrong, it was so wrong. In fact, CNBC called me to apologize because they found out. But our meeting was pleasant, Jamie Dimon was there too. I have great respect for Jamie Dimon.
The top corporate marginal tax rate was 35% in 2018.
Trump’s future Treasury secretary?
I would consider him. He attended the meeting. Tim Cook sat right next to him. You know, we all attended.
14. Did they give you any special advice or requests at that meeting?
No, no, the only reason is, for some reason, the word “tariff,” I usually use the word “tax,” because “tariff” is a very complicated word for some people. I’ll start telling you about William McKinley. William McKinley was assassinated. You might know, they named Mount McKinley after him. Then they removed the name—not good, because he made the country so rich. What he did was tariffs, we had no income tax. I think, they had the tariff act of 1887 or 1886…you have to correct me, you know, whether 1887 or 1886. They held a big seminar, gathered all business leaders.
The only topic was how do we handle all this money? If you look at these statements, Steve (Trump speaking to advisor Stephen Miller present), if you can find some, I’ll start using them in my speeches. But first must focus on debate. But he said, we won’t allow other countries to steal our wealth, steal our jobs. If they want to come here, they can. We’ll welcome them with open arms, but they must pay for the privilege of stealing our jobs and wealth. He made them pay, all this money accumulated, Roosevelt spent it. And Roosevelt got all the credit. I know how it works.
That was the Tariff Act of 1890. McKinley was Speaker of the House in 1890. Democrats lowered these tariffs in 1894, but McKinley largely restored them during his presidency in 1897.
But most CEOs don’t favor tariffs.
It’s amazing. You know why? Because they don’t want to build factories in the US. They have factories in different countries. You see, China has been great for years. It took many years, but for years China got stupid Americans to build factories in China.
They did it by charging massive tariffs of 100%, 150-200%. Other countries too. Quick story: When I was with Harley-Davidson, I said: “How ya doing?” They were at the White House. I said: “Everything going well?” They said: “Well, it’s hard to do business in some places.” I said: “You mean like India?” India is an amazing abuser. One of the best. One of the best.
Smart.
I said: “Why? Let me guess: India charges you tariffs, right?” “Yes, sir—200%.” Because they say—you sell how many motorcycles in India? He said basically none. I said: “Oh, I see, they charge you tariffs, right? Your tariff is 200%. Oh, I see. I guess they want you to build a big factory in India so you don’t have to pay tariffs?” “How did you know, sir?” I said, because I arranged it. They eventually built that big factory in India. They produce motorcycles all over. They eventually closed Milwaukee, you know, they closed many factories. I’m not sure they closed many, all. I said isn’t that a shame? It’s so stupid. You see? They charged massive fees. I can’t get people to understand this. We had a moron senator from Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey, a very stupid man. He said, “So let me ask you.” He lost because I wouldn’t endorse him, because if I don’t endorse them, they can’t win, you know? Have you seen that?
Now even Bob Good is gone. I mean, he led by 30 points. I endorsed someone nobody ever heard of, he won. But in the end, everything became incredible. You impose tariffs, now they all come back to build in America. It’s easy. But what they did was get rich by imposing massive tariffs, America went to China to build. Now, they don’t like tariffs because they already built there.
Hello, Mr. Lembcke. (Trump turns to club manager Bernd Lembcke crossing the room) Mr. Lembcke, these are people from Bloomberg Businessweek.
He’s been with me over 20 years.
Lembcke: Very successful, he says, about revenue, and most importantly profit.
Trump: It’s a great club. You have two things. You have the best homes and the best location, we have the best manager, right?
Lembcke: Yes, we’ve been together over 28 years.
Here’s a dialogue between Lembcke and Trump:
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TRUMP: He’s been manager for 28 years, hard to believe, I opened this club…
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LEMBCKE: Two years from now, the club will celebrate its 30th anniversary, Mar-a-Lago its 100th. We’ll have to celebrate next year.
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TRUMP: When I started, membership was $25,000. How much do they join for now?
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LEMBCKE: $700,000.
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TRUMP: How much will it be on October 1st? Or something.
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LEMBCKE: In October, it will go to $1 million [per member], because we have four memberships to sell, so we’re not in a rush.
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TRUMP: But we have to talk big. It’s good now, but we have to think macro. Thank you Bernd. Thank you.
15. Last question about CEOs. The New York Times just published an article saying no Fortune 100 CEO supports you. Why do you think that is?
Well, it’s a fake article. First, I don’t seek their support; second, they’re all calling, they all want to support me. If you understand politics, whoever leads gets all the support they want. Even if my personality were like shrimp, everyone would come. Everyone in the room. I arranged meetings…it was hard in a way. They all wanted meetings. But many support me. If you look at the list now, many you don’t know because they put them in a PAC you don’t know about.
I mean, you really don’t know. And it’s hard to discover. People haven’t discovered it, it’s amazing. But you know, they have a PAC, you can give someone $100 million or $50 million. But our support from businesses is massive. But two things, I don’t seek. I don’t care. First, if I seek help, it means you’re helping them. I don’t want to do that. Because I want to do…I got pipelines and major facilities approved. LNG plants in Louisiana. I could’ve gone to those plants and said, hey, I’ll get it approved, blah blah. I didn’t do that. I got it approved. I didn’t know who owned it, I didn’t care. Two years later, people come to me. “I own the company that built that pipeline, sir, you approved it.” That’s great, we’re going, you know. Remember Dakota Access Pipeline? I approved it. I didn’t call the company and say, hey, I’ll give you the biggest. They built everything except, because of the river, Indian River, it couldn’t connect 100 yards. I approved it.
So if we understand you, support is private?
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