Trump Clashes With Reporter Over Tariffs, Citing Pandemic and ‘Fighting Lunatics’

President Donald Trump clashed with a reporter Thursday over questions about a newly signed tariff telling him that he had spent his first term fighting lunatics like you The intense exchange follows a White House signing ceremony for a series of executive actions aimed at expanding reciprocal tariffs and strengthening U S contract plan While speaking with reporters at the White House after the signing a reporter confronted Trump on why he is emphasizing tariffs more in his second term You re weighing your decision to do that your authority to do that based on a law It's never been invoked before reported the reporter Why didn't you invoke this law in your first term You could have taken in billions upon billions of dollars in your first term but you waited until your second term FEDERAL JUDGES GRILL TRUMP LAWYERS OVER 'LIBERATION DAY' TARIFFS ON EVE OF ENFORCEMENTWithout missing a beat the president shot back Yeah because in my first term I was fighting lunatics like you who were trying to do things incorrectly and inappropriately to a president that was duly elected And we did do certain tariffs in the first term he continued If you look at China China we took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China He also explained that the COVID- pandemic also played a factor in his decision to not emphasize tariffs as much in his first term When Covid came the last thing I was going to do is tell France and Italy and Spain and a couple of other countries that we're going to hit you with tariffs he explained We had to fight the Covid situation when that came DAILY BEAST PULLS STORY ALLEGING MELANIA-EPSTEIN CONNECTION AFTER LAWYERS DISPUTE FRAMING But if you look at my first term he went on We took in hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tariffs but you people didn't cover it very well A message by the White House announced that Trump s executive actions taken on Thursday reflects the President s continued efforts to protect the United States against foreign threats to the national precaution and market system of the United States by securing fair balanced and reciprocal agreement relationships to benefit American workers farmers and manufacturers and to strengthen the United States defense industrial base This comes shortly after Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared a arrangement deal between the U S and E U on Sunday TRUMP SETS UP PRESIDENTIAL FITNESS TEST FOR ANOTHER REVAMP AFTER OBAMA RETIRED IT DURING PRESIDENCY We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of Trump reported So we have a tariff of We have the opening up of all of the European countries which I think I could say were essentially closed I mean you weren't exactly taking our orders You weren't exactly taking our agriculture he added addressing von der Leyen Von der Leyen mentioned Europe will also purchase billion worth of U S capacity as part of the deal in addition to making billion in other investments into the U S