Former President Donald Trump warned of potentially bad news for Starbucks and McDonald's on Monday while discussing his plans for tariffs against foreign countries.
While appearing on CNBC's Squawk Box, Trump was asked by co-host Melissa Lee if he has any concerns about China imposing "retaliatory tariffs" on American companies such as McDonald's and Starbucks if he were to impose tariffs on China as president.
"They might do that, but, you know, they didn't do it with me," Trump said.
When pressed on the potential difficulty of American companies doing business abroad, Lee asked if Trump would tell Starbucks and McDonald's that they could suddenly face challenges. Trump responded, "Sure."
"We went through years. They didn't do it with me, and they never pulled that trigger. That's a big trigger for them to pull, but even if they do, let American companies come back to America," he said.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.
The context:
Trump's remarks came while speaking about how he previously imposed numerous tariffs on China while president and how he plans to re-impose them if he is re-elected in 2024.
"I fully believe in [tariffs] economically when you're being taken advantage of by other countries. For instance, China was taking advantage of us on the steel; they were destroying our entire steel industry," Trump said. "I put a 50 percent tax on China's steel coming in...frankly, the tariff should have been higher."
What we know:
Trump has previously vowed to reimpose different tariffs if reelected in 2024, specifically against China.
"Joe Biden claims to support American manufacturing," Trump said in a campaign video in February 2023. "My agenda will tax China to build up America. The heart of my vision is a sweeping pro-American overhaul of our tax and trade policy to move from the Biden system that punishes domestic producers and rewards outsourcers to a system that rewards domestic production and taxes foreign companies and those who export American jobs."
Last month, Trump appeared on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures and was asked about reports that he was considering a 60 percent tariff on Chinese imports into the U.S. and said, "We have to do it...Maybe it's going to be more than that."
Views:
In January, Erica York, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, an organization in opposition to tariffs, told The Washington Post in regards to Trump's plans that "the 2018 to 2019 trade war was immensely damaging, and this would go so far beyond that it's hard to even compare to that."
"This threatens to upend and fragment global trade to an extent we haven't seen in centuries," York said.
What's next:
Trump is the presumptive Republican opponent to President Joe Biden in the 2024 election following former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's decision to withdraw from the race after Super Tuesday.
A February poll from NBC News found that Trump holds a 22 percent lead over Biden when voters were asked which candidate would better handle the economy—55 percent for Trump and 33 percent for Biden.
Update 3/11/24, 8:55 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 3/11/24, 9:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
