On Sunday morning, President Donald Trump took part in a wide-ranging interview with NBC News’ “Meet The Press” and host Kristen Welker.
As my colleague Bob Hoge shared earlier, one part of the sit-down focused on China and the Trump administration’s tariffs policies, including whether the Middle Kingdom is doing enough to get those tariffs reduced at some point.
Hoge wrote:
The commander in chief also defended his tariffs, which he said are forcing China to negotiate in good faith and stop taking advantage of us:
The president expanded on the topic, telling Welker in the interview done on Friday at Mar-a-Lago, that China appears to be softening about tariffs, partly because their economy is in the dumpster:
“They said today they want to talk. Look, China, and I don’t like this. I’m not happy about this. China’s getting killed right now,” he said, “They’re getting absolutely destroyed. Their factories are closing. Their unemployment is going through the roof. I’m not looking to do that to China now.”
Trump added that another facet he’d like to avoid connected to trade is allowing China to “make hundreds of billions of dollars and build more ships and more Army tanks and more airplanes,” when we could be making those dollars to benefit the U.S’ relationships with foreign nations.
Speaking generally about tariffs and industries that want access to American consumers, he explained when pressed that companies are lining up to swap out many of their manufacturing facilities to our shores already. As sources told Reuters:
The Chinese government has assembled a list of American products that would be exempt from its 125% tariffs on U.S. goods, Reuters reported last week. Beijing already has exemptions for some U.S. pharmaceuticals, microchips and aircraft engines.
Pres. Trump said he’s optimistic and “flexible” about working with companies on tariffs:
He also delved more into his thinking on the use of tariffs, explaining that he don’t see them as a “tax”:
.@POTUS: “I think what is a great misnomer is the word ‘tariff,’ in many cases — I don’t view it as a tax, I view it as an incentive for people to come into the United States and build plants, factories, offices.” pic.twitter.com/E0HUjeMViZ
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 4, 2025
There will likely be more stories at RedState about what the president said to NBC News, so stay tuned for additional coverage in the coming hours. Fascinating stuff is on the way.
You can watch the full interview below, courtesy of NBC News:
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