Friday at a rally for Louisiana Senate candidate Republican John Kennedy in Baton Rouge, President-elect Donald Trump restated his proposal to impose a “substantial tariff or tax,” on the imports of companies that move production out of the United States.
Trump said, “We don’t want companies to leave our country, go to another country, and sell their product and then sell the product where they left. Now we have all unemployed people. They had jobs for 32 years. I mean Carrier is a great example, and Carrier— we did a great job with Carrier, but, you know, they announced it a year and a half ago, they already have a plant built. Think what you could do if they haven’t started or haven’t said anything yet. They’re not going to leave because we’re going to put up a very high tax, and if they want to build their plant out of this country, that’s fine, but if they think they’re going to sell their product back into the country and have no tax, that’s not going to happen anymore folks, not going to happen, and therefore they’re not going to leave. They may leave a state and go to a different state. Maybe they’re having a hard time with their employees.”
“That’s possible, and they may leave, but they’re going to leave for another state,” he continued. “They’re not leaving for another country very easily, and if they do, they’re going to have a very, very substantial tariff or tax to pay. That’s it. And you know what’s going to happen? They’re going to say, we like Louisiana very much, right? We’re not leaving. All right. i don’t say 100 percent of the time, but I’ll tell you what, pretty close to that number. We lost 70,000 factories in this country. We have so many companies right now, although I think probably if I would have said a couple months ago we have so many companies negotiating to leave, I don’t think they’re negotiating so fast right now. I have heard that. And you see what’s happening with the stock market and a lot of things, because they understand we know what we’re doing. We’re not going to let this happen. We can’t let it happen. Our country is being drained, drained of its jobs, and its good jobs, and they’re going to other countries, and just not going to happen.”
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