Closing the tabs ...
Donald Trump had a fiery interview today with the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg John Micklethwait.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 15, 2024
Here are the top 5 moments:
5. Trump roasts the Federal Reserve, says they show up to the office once a month to "flip a coin."
4. Trump calls out Micklethwait to his face along… pic.twitter.com/DEgrTyOlUx
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Trump pushed back against critiques from many economists and others that imposing across-the-board tariffs would balloon the deficit and trigger trade wars.
He defended tariffs as a panacea that would force companies to produce in the US, creating American jobs and economic growth, and could be used to bolster the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The main target would be China, but Trump also included allies like the European Union in his tough trade talk.
“You can do it as a money-making instrument, or you can do it as something to get the companies,” Trump said.
Ed: I am not as enthusiastic about tariffs as Trump is. I'm also not as blind to the fact that Joe Biden has used them as well for his own purposes, and kept Trump's in place.
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Reporter: Should Google be broken up?
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 15, 2024
Trump: Virginia cleaned up its voter rolls and got rid of thousands and thousands of bad votes
Reporter: The question was about Google pic.twitter.com/RnjB8bhmFH
Ed: In politics, candidates learn to answer the question they wanted to be asked. Reporters learn to restate the original question ... when interviewing Republicans. Kamala Harris, not so much, although we'll see what Bret Baier does tomorrow.
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🚨 The crowd just went WILD after President Trump ROASTED the leftist hack from Bloomberg on stage
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 15, 2024
“You’ve been wrong about EVERYTHING… you’ve been wrong all your life.” 🤣🔥 pic.twitter.com/ZCEiX0KdEd
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“You could be plunging America into the biggest trade war —” Micklethwait said.
“But there are no tariffs,” Trump objected.
“There are tariffs already,” Micklethwait pushed back, not sure what Trump was getting at.
“No, there are no tariffs — all you have to do is build your plant in the United States and you don’t have any tariffs. That’s what I want,” Trump said, and the audience began to clap.
Ed: Micklethwait is pushing back on populism. It won't work, and it has nothing to do with the esoteric economic argument. This is a cultural argument, and the working class is tired of being sacrificed on the altar of free trade with unscrupulous partners. They want the jobs to come back to America, and that's what Trump is selling.
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Trump: "I call it the weave. [unintelligible] You have the weave as long as you end up in the right location at the end."
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 15, 2024
John Micklethwait: "I was asking about tariffs."
Trump: "China thinks we're a stupid country, a very stupid country... Barack Hussein Obama, have you heard… pic.twitter.com/tMj1Dl7BDe
Ed: The point about domestic steel production and national security is critical -- and I wish Trump had stuck to it. Tariffs are a part of that, but so are education to produce a manufacturing-oriented workforce and regulatory policies that prevent mining and manufacturing. And a lot more.
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While campaigning for the presidency in 2020, Joe Biden criticized then-President Donald Trump's decision to slap tariffs on a wide range of goods imported from China. Once getting into the White House, however, Biden has maintained those tariffs—and even added to them.
Asked in 2022 about that apparent contradiction, Biden's top trade official said the administration was unwilling to draw down Trump's tariffs because they were crucial "leverage" that could be applied to China.
"The China tariffs are, in my view, a significant piece of leverage—and a trade negotiator never walks away from leverage," U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said at that time.
Ed: Eric Boehm goes on to argue that the tariffs haven't changed China's behavior. Does that mean tariffs are ineffective? One could argue that, but one could just as easily argue that diplomatic competence and seriousness -- or lack thereof -- makes the crucial difference. What we do know is that two decades of laissez-faire with China certainly didn't motivate good behavior either.
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Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait: Just for the record, The Economic Club of Chicago and Bloomberg invited Vice President Harris to a similar interview. She has declined. pic.twitter.com/pREBYoHhFp
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 15, 2024
Ed: Yeah, color me shocked.
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Micklethwait is a brilliant man: polished, Ampleforth and Oxford, highly successful. His hair is coiffed and his loafers look expensive. For the benefit of the affluent audience, he endeavored to have a serious conversation as to the concerns rich people have about a second Trump term. He asked about tariffs, growth, China, Putin, monopolies, immigration and January 6.
But Trump is a rude seventy-eight-year-old force of nature, an economic populist who says the Wall Street Journal has been “wrong about everything” — and the Wall Street Journal-reading crowd seem to love him for it.
He entered to a standing ovation, abused Micklethwait for asking perfectly reasonable questions, boasted ad nauseam and wandered wildly off-topic whenever challenged. Yet he left the stage to even louder whoops and cheers.
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NEW from @KamalaHQ >> Statement on Trump's unhinged Bloomberg appearance
— Joseph Costello (@costellojoseph_) October 15, 2024
"An angry, rambling Trump couldn’t focus, had to be repeatedly reminded of the topic at hand, and whenever he did stake out a position, it was so extreme that no Americans would want it." pic.twitter.com/SAiaRDniU3
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Trump is winning. This is at Bloomberg. pic.twitter.com/CnhPmDneHB
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) October 15, 2024
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