On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox News Tonight,” 2024 presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said that he “would be willing to support government support” for manufacturing crucial items like semiconductors in the United States instead of China.
After DeSantis [relevant remarks begin around 7:20] called for the U.S. to declare economic independence from China, host Kayleigh McEnany asked, “Would you be willing to use tariffs to get China to the negotiating table?”
DeSantis responded, “I would. I think that what you need to do if you’re going to target a particular industry in China like that, you need to make sure we have incentives here in the United States to bring that industry home. It will raise the price of the China product, but we’ve got to make sure it’s economical here in the United States, so you need to have — couple that with tax incentives, tax credits, and even for things that are really important like semiconductors, I would be willing to support government support on that. I typically wouldn’t do that, because generally, the market does. But I think some of these things are so important for national security, we’ve got to be willing to lean in on that.”
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