Reporter Asks Trump Point Blank: 'Do You Think Your Tariffs Might Have Led Inflation To Increase?'

During a press gaggle on Tuesday, President Donald Trump was asked about his tariffs and inflation.

Transcript

00:00Do you believe your tariffs might have led for inflation to increase last month?

00:05Do you think they had any more?

00:06Well, we had very little inflation.

00:09I don't know.

00:09Who do you work for?

00:10USA Today.

00:11What?

00:12USA Today.

00:13Well, they wrote me a beautiful article the other day, so I can't get angry at you.

00:17USA Today just wrote a very good article about me.

00:20What's that all about?

00:21So I can't get angry at you.

00:23On Texas, sir?

00:24No, there was very little inflation, as you know.

00:26The numbers were very good, very much inside the margin.

00:29So we've had no inflation.

00:31All we have is we're making a fortune.

00:33We are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars.

00:37You saw we had a surplus of $25 billion last month, which we haven't had in many, many years.

00:43Sir, on Texas.

00:49We are doing it because I'm able to do it.

00:52Nobody else would be able to do it.

00:54We have tariffs going on because we want tariffs, and we want the money coming into the United States.

01:02But more important than the money, there's two aspects of tariffs.

01:05There's the money, which comes in.

01:07The other aspect is that rather than paying the tariffs, the country or the company will build in the United States,

01:15make their product in the United States, and that creates jobs.

01:18And I would say of the two, probably the more important to me is that, yeah.

01:23Sir, on Texas, how many?

01:25Are you on Ukraine's side now?

01:28No, I'm on nobody's side.

01:29I'm on nobody's side.

01:30Why?

01:30I want to, you know the side I'm on?

01:33Humanity's side.

01:34I want to stop the killing of thousands of people a week.

01:37I want to stop the killing.

01:39I want the killing to stop in the Ukraine-Russia war.

01:43That's the side I'm on.

01:44There's a president.

01:45There's a president.