President Donald Trump said the U.S. will be “flooded with jobs” as he imposes tariffs that will encourage industries to move to American soil.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. will be “flooded with jobs” as foreign trading partners move industries to American soil to avoid tariffs.
“They can build a factory here, a plant or whatever it may be, here,” Trump said Thursday afternoon from the Oval Office. “And that includes the medical, that includes cars, that includes chips and semiconductors. That includes everything. If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever. And I think that’s what’s going to happen. I think our country is going to be flooded with jobs.”
Trump said U.S. consumers could see prices rise in the “short term” due to the tariffs, but that prices will lower and that industries across the board would benefit.
“And I think the farmers are going to be helped by this very much because product is being dumped into our country and our farmers are getting hurt very badly by the last administration,” Trump said. “The last administration hated our farmers, like, at a level that I’ve never seen before. I think our farmers are going to be helped. Jobs are going to be helped. But our farmers are going to be helped, our manufacturers are going to be helped.”
TRUMP SIGNS ‘RECIPROCAL’ TARIFF PLAN FOR COUNTRIES THAT TAX US GOODS
“And again, if somebody wants to come in, including the car companies, if they want to come in and build car plants, they’ll do it without tariffs. And therefore, prices won’t go up. There could be some short-term disturbance, but long term, it’s going to it’s going to make our country a fortune,” he added.
FENTANYL’S FINANCIAL GRIP ON US SKYROCKETED TO $2.7T AT HEIGHT OF BIDEN ADMIN: STUDY
Trump announced on Thursday that he will impose “fair and reciprocal” tariffs on all major U.S. trading partners.
The plan includes tapping Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, to produce a report on reciprocal trade relations within 180 days. Lutnik said Thursday that he will have the report ready for Trump by April 1.
“On trade I have decided for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff – meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them no more, no less. In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff. Very simple,” Trump said at the White House of the tariff plan.
Trump’s reciprocal tariff announcement follows him leveraging tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China earlier in February. The tariffs were created in light of “extraordinary” threats stemming from “illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl,” according to Trump’s executive order authorizing the tariffs.
Trump’s order authorized tariffs through the new International Emergency Economic Powers Act. It included 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on imports from China. Energy resources from Canada would have a lower 10% tariff.
TRUMP IMPOSES TARIFFS ON IMPORTS FROM CANADA, MEXICO AND CHINA: ‘NATIONAL EMERGENCY’
Both Canada and Mexico agreed to concessions with Trump the day before the tariffs were set to take effect, pledging to send additional security personnel to their respective borders with the U.S. Trump agreed to pause the tariffs on the two nations for one month in light of the border security concessions.
China, on the other hand, imposed tariffs on some U.S. imports in response to Trump’s tariffs.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.
