In a CNBC interview, President Trump highlighted key achievements of his second term, including major trade deals with Japan and the EU, lower drug prices through his Most Favored Nation plan, and a focus on putting Americans to work. He criticized interest rate decisions, previewed new tariffs on pharmaceuticals, and accused big banks of bias against conservatives. Trump praised his Treasury Secretary, discussed near-final trade talks with China and India, and slammed the Biden-era job numbers as โphony.โย The White House writes:
This morning, President Donald J. Trump joined CNBCโs Squawk Box for aย wide-ranging interviewย on the massive victories for the American people so far in his second term โ including his unprecedented success revitalizing the economy, securing fair trade deals, restoring public safety, and more.
Hereโs what you missed:
-
President Trumpย outlinedย his historic trade deals:ย โWeโre taking in trillions of dollarsโฆ If you look, Japan โ weโre taking in $550 billion, and โฆ thatโs OUR money. Itโs our money to invest as weโd like. European Union โ $650 billionโฆ and theyโre going to buy $750 billion worth of our energy.โ
-
President Trumpย toutedย his Most Favored Nation drug pricing plan:ย โFor 30 years, Europe has had drug prices that are, in many cases, one-tenth the cost of drugs hereโฆ Weโre not going to pay ten times more for a pill than they pay in Europe, and thatโs going to have a tremendous impact.โ
-
President Trumpย laudedย the drop-off in foreign-born workers since he took office:ย โThatโs a great number, by the way, because it means weโre putting AMERICANS to work.โ
-
President Trumpย weighed inย on interest rates:ย โI wanted [rate cuts] a long time ago. Jay Powell is highly politicalโฆ Jerome โToo Lateโ Powell. Heโs too late, always. He always has been โ except when it came to lowering interest rates before the election.โ
-
President Trumpย previewedย forthcoming tariffs announcements:ย โWithin the next week or so, weโre going to be announcing tariffs on pharmaceuticalsโฆ We want pharmaceuticals made in our country.โ
-
President Trumpย lambastedย big banks for discriminating against conservatives:ย โThey discriminated against many conservatives.โฆ I believe what they did is they went to the regulators.โ
-
President Trumpย praisedย Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent:ย โHeโs doing a really good job. We made the greatest trade deals in the history of our country. We had to because we were being ripped off by the world.โ
-
President Trumpย describedย discussions with China:ย โIโll end up having a meeting [with China] before the end of the year, most likely, if we make a dealโฆ Weโre getting very close to a deal.โ
-
President Trumpย commentedย on the Bureau of Labor Statistics under the former Biden-appointed Commissioner:ย โThe numbers were rigged. Biden wasnโt doing well; he was doing poorly. They announced these phenomenal numbersโฆ then they did the biggest revision, I think in history, of almost 900,000 jobsโฆ They gave phony numbers.โ
-
President Trumpย detailedย trade discussions with India:ย โWe do very, very little business with India because their tariffs are so high โ so India has not been a good trading partner because they do a lot of business with us, but we donโt do business with them. So, we settled on 25%, but I think Iโm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours because theyโre buying Russian oil. Theyโre fueling the war machine.โ
Read more here.
