Former President Donald Trump defended his economic and foreign policy positions during an hourlong interview Tuesday in Chicago.
Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait grilled Trump on a range of issues, mostly economic but also dipping into immigration, foreign wars, and who needs to take a cognitive test.
Here are five takeaways from Trump’s appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago.
1. Trump offers full-throated defense of tariffs
If elected, Trump said his approach to both the economy and foreign policy would revolve largely around tariffs.
“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,’” Trump said. “It’s my favorite word. It needs a public relations firm to help it. But to me, it’s the most beautiful word.”
Trump campaigned in 2016 on implementing tariffs on China, which he did after taking office, and President Joe Biden has largely kept them in place. The former president now plans to go even bigger on tariffs if he wins again, seeing them as a tool to shore up American manufacturing and to strike better deals with foreign nations.
Trump repeated a story about China canceling deals to build electric cars in Mexico due to the threat of his reelection, an occurrence he said would wreck the American auto industry.
“I told [China], and I said it publicly, they’re not going to sell one car into the United States,” Trump said. “I said, ‘If I run this country, if I’m going to be president of this country, I’m going to put a 100%, 200%, 2,000% tariff [on Chinese vehicles].’ They’re not going to sell one car into the United States.”
The remarks drew applause from the surprisingly pro-Trump crowd in attendance. Trump made similar claims about allies such as Japan and Germany, two countries that he said sell their cars in the U.S. but refuse to buy American cars and could be coaxed into better trade deals by implementing or threatening tariffs.
Trump sees tariffs as a multifaceted tool, one he could also use in crafting foreign policy.
When asked about the status of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, Trump said he would use tariffs to ensure the dollar remains dominant.
“If a country tells me, ‘Sir, we like you very much, but we’re going to no longer adhere to being in the reserve currency. We’re not going to salute the dollar anymore,’” Trump said, “I’ll say, ‘That’s okay, and you’re going to pay a 100% tariff on everything you sell into the United States.’
“He will then follow it up by saying, ‘Sir, it would be an honor to stay with the reserve currency,’” Trump concluded.
2. Trump says he can encourage the Federal Reserve
Trump waded into the controversial topic of whether it’s OK for the president to try to influence the Federal Reserve. He replied that he could and that the job of setting interest rates is not as complicated as it seems.
“I think it’s the greatest job in government,” Trump said. “You show up to the office once a month, and you say, ‘Let’s see — flip a coin.’ And everybody talks about you like you’re a god. ‘Oh, what will they do?’”
Trump slammed Fed Chairman Jerome Powell earlier this year, predicting he would lower interest rates to aid Democrats in the election. In Chicago, Trump defended his actions.
“I think I’m better than most people would be in that position,” Trump said. “I have the right to say I think he should go up or down a little bit. I don’t think I should be allowed to order it, but I think I have the right to put in comments as to whether or not interest rates should go up or down.”
Biden has criticized Trump for his stance, saying last month that the Fed’s independence should be sacrosanct.
“Unlike my predecessor, I respect the Federal Reserve’s independence,” Biden told the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. “That independence has served the country well.”
3. Trump defends ‘the weave’ and his competence
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign has questioned Trump’s competence and age, demanding that he release medical records and showing clips of him appearing “unhinged” at his rallies.
Trump defended his meandering speaking style during the interview.
“I call it the weave,” Trump told Micklethwait. “You have the weave, as long as you end up in the right location at the end [it works].”
When Micklethwait accused Trump of getting off-topic later in the interview, Trump made the claim again.
“No, I’m just telling you basic — it’s called the weave,” Trump said. “It’s all these different things that happen.”
Trump also defended his age by naming political and business leaders who served into their 80s and 90s and by calling Harris’s intelligence into question.
“I don’t think she could pass a cognitive test,” he said.
4. Appearance undercuts Harris’s assertion that Trump is hiding
The Harris campaign is also accusing Trump of hiding from interviews, mentioning that he turned down interview requests with 60 Minutes and pulled out of a grilling on CNBC.
But the tables were turned early on when Micklethwait said the Economic Club of Chicago had asked Harris to appear and had not received a response.
“Bloomberg invited Vice President Harris to a similar interview about her economic plans,” he said. “She has declined so far.”
Trump holds an 8-point lead over Harris on the economy and a 7-point edge on inflation, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll, so if she refuses to speak further about her economic plans, it could be damaging.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the Harris campaign seeking comment.
5. Trump declines to say whether he talks to Putin
The interview included plenty of contentious questions about the national debt, Jan. 6, and illegal immigration, none of which Trump shied away from. But he did refuse to answer whether he has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving the White House, a claim made last week by journalist Bob Woodward.
“I don’t comment on that,” Trump said. Nonetheless, he defended himself again.
“If I did [talk to Putin], it’s a smart thing,” Trump said. “If I’m friendly with people, if I have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
Trump said both the U.S. and Russia have 2,000 nuclear weapons, implying that his close relationship with Putin helped keep the foreign adversary’s ambitions in check while both were in office.
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Asked whether his statement was an admission that he had talked to Putin, Trump said it was not.
“I don’t comment on those things,” he repeated.