President Donald Trump ripped the establishment Wall Street Journal on Thursday for editorializing against his ongoing trade battle with China.
“The Wall Street Journal editorial board and some others continue to publish foolish articles that demonstrate that they understand nothing about trade or business,” Trump said. “Nothing.”
The president spoke about the paper during a political rally in New Hampshire about leveling tariffs on China, noting that the Wall Street Journal editorial page kept urging him to remove them.
“I lose all the cards if we take off the tariffs,” Trump replied, pointing to the tough tariffs leveled by countries like the European Union and India.
He boasted that he was the first modern American president to try to fix the trade imbalances with foreign countries.
“The fact is, the leaders in my position, they did not do a damn thing, they didn’t talk,” Trump said. “Past leaders followed the terrible advice of these editorial boards that are frankly totally inexperienced in business I guess, and our industries were utterly devastated.”
The president boasted that he officially labeled China as a currency manipulator, keeping a promise he made during the 2016 campaign.
“Globalism enriches foreign countries at our expense,” he said. “I love our country. I am president of the United States of America and not the president of the world.”
Trump on multiple occasions said that China was ready to make a deal, as their economy was suffering as a result of the tariffs.
“They are not too happy,” he said. “They are losing millions of jobs. The tariffs are working and they are eating the tariffs, there is no price increase.”