Karoline Leavitt Defends Trump Tariffs Amidst Plummeting Stock Market

2 days ago

On CNN, Karoline Leavitt was interviewed about President Trump's tariff announcement and the plummeting stock market.

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Transcript

00:00continue to follow the breaking news this morning. The reaction to the

00:03president's tariff announcement, global stock markets falling and the world's

00:08biggest economies vowing retaliation. This in response to President Trump

00:13announcing an across the board tariff of 10% on all imports coming into the

00:17United States starting this weekend. And for some 60 countries, the rate is

00:21even higher. Futures have been down sharply this morning. You take a look

00:25at it right there ahead of the opening bell coming next hour. The Nasdaq down

00:31just shy of 4% at this point. China hardest hit by the tariffs responded

00:36overnight to the tariffs, saying that it will quote safeguard its own rights

00:41and interests. European Union saying that it's preparing countermeasures.

00:46European Commission president saying this. If you take on one of us, you

00:51take on all of us. Joining us right now is White House Press Secretary

00:56Caroline Leavitt. Caroline, thank you very much for your time this morning.

00:59There's been a lot of reaction overnight since the announcement. And

01:03since we all basically were asleep, what is the White House reaction to as

01:08we're just had those numbers up global markets tumbling this morning and

01:12futures down sharply

01:15to anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump.

01:19This is a president who is doubling down on his proven economic formula

01:23from his first term. We saw wages increase. We saw inflation come down.

01:28We had a Trump energy boom. We had the largest tax cuts in history, and

01:32that's exactly what the president intends to do. Following his historic

01:36announcement yesterday for reciprocal tariffs, it's the golden age rule for

01:40the Golden Age of America, and the United States of America is no longer

01:44going to be cheated by foreign nations around the world. And as the president

01:48declared yesterday, this is indeed a national emergency. We have a $1.2

01:53trillion trade deficit and counting. We've had 90,000 factories closed in

01:59the last couple of decades. Since 1997, Americans have been put out of five

02:04million manufacturing jobs. These are not just statistics. These are real

02:08American lives that have been impacted, and it's about time we have a president

02:12who actually does something about it. This is going to restore more wealth,

02:15more jobs, more economic prosperity to our great country. The foreign

02:21minister of Norway and in Brussels for NATO meetings said this morning that

02:25the tariffs could violate an article of the NATO treaty that orders members to

02:32promote economic stability and collaboration. If this is a breach of

02:38the NATO treaty, will the president reassess his approach?

02:43No. The president is firm in his approach, and the president is ensuring

02:48economic stability here in the United States of America. Yesterday, he was

02:52joined in the Rose Garden by everyday Americans, middle class workers. You

02:56heard from one of them who the president invited on stage by name because he

03:01knows this man and he knows what the impact of globalization has done to

03:05communities like Detroit, Michigan, where auto workers have been put out of

03:08jobs, where we've seen factories shut down. We have offshored critical supply

03:12chains in our country. Do we want our critical supplies like life saving

03:16medical medicines and chips being made in China, or do we want them being made

03:21right here in the United States of America? Every American knows the

03:24answer to that question. This is a common sense policy, and if these

03:28countries wanted to negotiate, if these countries wanted to do what's right,

03:31they've had 70 years to do it. Instead, they have been ripping off American

03:35workers, and President Trump has made it very clear that this is a policy he

03:39was going to implement. He campaigned on the idea of fair trade on tariffs, and

03:44nearly 80 million Americans elected him to do it, and he is delivering. You talk

03:49about the impact on everyday Americans. I wanted to ask you about that because

03:52the impact on farmers is a big concern for, I've heard voiced by many

03:58Republicans like Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina. I want to play for you

04:02what the senator has said and also what a local farmer in North Carolina is

04:06saying.

04:09Anyone who says there may be a little bit of pain before we get things right

04:14need to talk about farmers who are one crop away from bankruptcy. They don't

04:18have time in western North Carolina alone. Pauline caused over $2.5

04:24billion of crop losses. These tariffs are pouring salt in a wound that is

04:29just now beginning to heal.

04:33To that farmer, the president says what

04:37the president is standing up for American farmers. In fact, he was joined

04:41here at the White House yesterday by many of them. We have seen China, the

04:45Chinese Communist Party buying up, gobbling up American farmland. The

04:49president is doing what's right for these farmers into our fellow Americans.

04:52We encourage them to buy American and you look at the effectiveness of the

04:57tariffs by the investments that have poured into our country thus far, even

05:01before the president made this announcement yesterday, he has secured

05:04trillions of dollars in investments right here in the United States of

05:08America. And he has the backs of our farmers, our workers and our invest in

05:13companies as well who are choosing to invest in the United States. Well, I

05:17mean, that that woman is a farmer and that woman says that this feels like

05:22salt in a wound that is only beginning to heal. She does that. She does not

05:28seem to want these tariffs at all. I mean, the president has acknowledged

05:32that Americans could feel some pain with these tariffs with this

05:36announcement. How much pain is the president comfortable with Americans

05:41feeling even on a temporary basis?

05:45Well, again to that wonderful American farmer, the president has your back and

05:49he wants to protect you and your family owned farm. That is the point of these

05:54tariffs. As far as are you going to do anything to ease the pain?

06:00Well, absolutely. We're working on that every single day. The American people

06:05and the naysayers need to look at the whole of government economic approach

06:09that this administration is taking. The president has already launched a

06:13massive deregulatory agenda, which we know has saved the American taxpayer

06:17millions of dollars. He is also unleashing the might of our American

06:21energy industry, which we know is the greatest driver of inflation. It's one

06:25of the many reasons we had an inflation crisis in the previous

06:28administration. The president is unleashing American energy to bring

06:31down the cost of living in this country. We also know again in the

06:34president's first term, while he effectively implemented tariffs, wages

06:38went up. The median wage in America went up by $6500. And so it is the

06:43goal of this president to have higher wages, less inflation and tax cuts.

06:47That's the second step of the Trump economic agenda. More money back into

06:52the pockets of hardworking American, no taxes on tips, overtime or Social

06:56Security. We're counting on Congress to get it done. And that's the next step

06:59of the Trump economic boom. On taxes, JP Morgan just came out with an

07:03analysis in response to this tariff announcement saying that these tariffs

07:08will be the largest tax hike on Americans since 1968, a tax hike by

07:14$660 billion a year. What is JP Morgan missing? What are world markets

07:21getting wrong? What What are when you see stock futures down? What is

07:25everyone missing, including that local farmer in North Carolina?

07:30Well, they're missing the massive revenue that these tariffs are going

07:33to bring into the United States trillions and trillions of dollars in

07:36investment, which leads to more jobs in American communities, higher

07:41wages. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm the immediate I mean, in the most

07:46immediate. I mean, these farmers, as Tom Silla says, farmers are one crop

07:50away from bankruptcy. That farmer doesn't have time to wait for tariffs

07:56to work their way into the system, the benefit of it to work its way into the

08:01system at all. This is going to mean higher prices for Americans in the

08:07most immediate. That's why I asked the question. How much pain on a

08:11temporary basis is okay? What's the standard that the president is looking

08:16at in terms of how much pain Americans can feel on a temporary basis that he's

08:22okay with?

08:24Again, the president is focused every single day on lowering the cost of

08:29living in this country while simultaneously implementing these very

08:33effective tariffs, massive deregulation, energy boom and tax cuts

08:38are the economic formula that will mean more prosperity and the lower cost of

08:43living. And it's a proven formula. Look at President Trump's first term and

08:47the results when he left office, inflation was 1.4%. He implemented many

08:52tariffs in his first term that did bring in billions of dollars in revenue. In

08:56fact, the previous administration knew they were so effective. That's why they

08:59left them in place. So again, the president is delivering on his promise

09:02to implement reciprocal tariffs while his administration is working hard

09:06every day to cut regulation to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in our federal

09:10government as well. And tax cuts are the next step of this economic agenda,

09:15which will lead to more investment, more money in our economy, more economic

09:18growth. One quick question because I've heard it suggested. Is there any chance

09:22that the president will pull back on implementing these tariffs before they

09:26are? They go into effect this weekend.

09:29The president made it clear yesterday. This is not a negotiation. This is a

09:33national emergency. He's always willing to pick up the phone to answer calls,

09:37but he laid out the case yesterday for why we are doing this. And these

09:41countries around the world have had 70 years to do the right thing by the

09:44american people, and they have chosen not to. They have ripped off american

09:48workers. They have taken our jobs overseas. The president is putting an

09:51end to that yesterday. Caroline Leavitt, White House press secretary. Thank you

09:54for your time this morning, john. Great discussion there.

Karoline Leavitt Defends Trump Tariffs Amidst Plummeting Stock Market

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