Trump Suggests More Secondary Tariffs or Sanctions Could Come
President Donald Trump touted the secondary tariffs on India, the second-largest purchaser of Russian oil, as action to show his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin's continued aggression, when asked by a Polish reporter why he hadn't taken action against Russia to stop the war.
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"And I haven't done phase two yet or phase three," Trump said Sept. 3 about secondary sanctions or tariffs.
He also said, "I think we're going to have a good solution. The offense moves a little bit. They move inches. They're dropping bombs and killing everybody. But I have a power to end things. It's going to get done one way or the other."
Trump also was asked about whether higher tariffs could replace the income tax. Trump didn't directly answer that, but said, "The tariffs are vital to the success of this country." He said "the money coming in is incredible."
He said, "If we didn't have tariffs, we would be a very poor nation. And we would be taken advantage of by every other nation in the world. We have a very, very big case in the Supreme Court. Our country has a chance to be unbelievably rich again, but it can also be unbelievably poor again. If we don't win that case our country is going to suffer so greatly. I think we're going to have a big victory."
He said that the tariffs led to deals with the EU, Japan, South Korea "and others to come."
Trump said if the Supreme Court rules that emergency tariffs are unconstitutional, "I guess we'd have to unwind them."
Trump said without the power of reciprocal tariffs, other countries would impose tariffs on U.S. goods, "and we'd have no way to fight them. We would be a third-world nation."