In his characteristically indirect style, President Donald Trump appeared to acknowledge that consumer prices will rise due to tariffs but suggested Americans could simply shop less to combat them.
During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump defended his tariffs on China, some as high as 145%, claiming Chinese ships are “loaded up with stuff, much of which, not all of it, but much of which we don’t need.”
“[China] made a trillion dollars with Biden selling us stuff; much of it we don’t need,” Trump stated in a clip circulation on X. “Somebody said, ‘oh, the shelves are gonna be open.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” he added.
The president’s claim came as new GDP data showed the U.S. economy contracted by 0.3%, largely due to his trade wars. Trump used the disappointing report to shift blame for the downturn onto former President Joe Biden in a Truth Social post shared Wednesday morning, ahead of the Cabinet meeting.
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th,” Trump wrote. “Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers,” he added.
Trump added the U.S. has to get rid of the Biden “overhang” before the economy bounces back but reiterated the slump “has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS.”
“BE PATIENT!!!” the president added.
Originally published on Latin Times
