Trump says ‘no one knows what magnets are’ during bizarre Oval Office exchange

Trump says 'no one knows what magnets are' during bizarre Oval Office exchangeCredit: The Marine Mammal Center/USFWS permit MA101713-1/TMX

Transcript

00:00For example, China. China was going to hit us with rare earth. Now, everybody says,

00:04what does that mean? Magnets. If China refused to give magnets, because they have a monopoly

00:11on magnets, because they were allowed to happen over a 32-year period, there wouldn't be a car

00:17made in the entire world. There wouldn't be a radio. There wouldn't be a television. There

00:21wouldn't be internet. There wouldn't be anything, because magnets are such a part. Now, nobody

00:25knows what magnets are. And not overly sophisticated, but to build a magnet system would take two

00:31years. So if I weren't able to say to China, look, if you're going to do that to us, we're

00:35going to charge you 158% tariff. It was 100% on top of 58%. And China called up immediately

00:42and said, we will make peace. And we made peace. We made a great deal.