Donald Trump concluded his trip to the Group of 7 (G7) economics conference in Canada with a combative, unscheduled statement in which he promised that the United States would no longer be the “piggy bank that everyone is robbing.”
Flanked by Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow and National Security Adviser John Bolton, Trump said the ultimate goal of U.S. trade policy was the elimination of tariffs and subsidies. But short of that, he also pledged the U.S. would raise its own trade barriers to combat unfair trade practices around the world.
“We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing and that ends,” Trump said.
Trump praised the G7 nations for what he described as their efforts to “take advantage” of weak U.S. leadership
“I blame our leaders and I congratulate leaders of other countries for taking advantage of our leaders,” Trump said. “It’s going to stop. Or we’ll stop trading with them. And that’s a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.”
Trump said that America’s trading partners would be making a mistake if they retaliated against new U.S. tariffs.
“If they retaliate they’re making a tremendous mistake because you see we have a tremendous trade imbalance,” he said. “The numbers are so much against them, we win that war 1000 times out of a 1000.”
President Trump’s public comments Saturday morning reflected his aggressive approach with world leaders Friday night. In private conversations with leaders from France, Canada, the U.K., and Japan Friday, Trump countered complaints about U.S. trade policy with detailed lists of what he described as unfair trade practices and failures to meet security commitments, according to a person briefed on the matter.
“If they thought they were going to lecture Trump on the glories of free trade, they got a rude awakening. He came to a gun fight armed with a stealth bomber,” one U.S. official told Breitbart News.