President Trump said there will be a “transition period” for some companies as his tariffs work themselves out and encourage greater reliance on U.S. products throughout the supply chain.
Those difficulties mean he has “to be flexible,” he explained, and mentioned the example of his scaling back of his auto tariffs.
“Now with the cars, I’m getting a 25% tariff for the people. We’re taking in billions and billions of dollars, but they’re hurt because they can’t switch over 100% of the content of the car within a very short period of time,” Mr. Trump said as he phoned into NewsNation’s ”Cuomo Town Hall” Wednesday.
“So I gave them a short period, two years, where they have to be switched over 100%, where every single part in the car is made in the USA.”
“If I didn’t do that, it would have been very, very tough for them,” he said. “What I am is flexible, and if I didn’t do that, it would be very tough for these companies, and these companies — it’s a transition period.”
He went on to argue his point that the country has been ripped off for years by other countries and that tariffs will prevent that.
“There’s never been anything like it the way we were ripped off. We were ripped off by China, but ripped off by everybody, but really by China,” he said.
