Kevin O'Leary says Trump is using tariffs to warn world leaders to 'get in line'
"Shark Tank" star Kevin O’Leary broke down what he calls President Donald Trump's "tariff signal" to different countries in an effort to bolster American manufacturing.
"The tariff signal, if you want to call it that, is a negotiating leverage tool because Trump commands the largest market on Earth," O’Leary told "The Story."
TRUMP CONFRONTS BANK OF AMERICA CEO FOR NOT TAKING 'CONSERVATIVE BUSINESS'
Trump addressed the World Economic Forum (WEF) remotely on Thursday, threatening businesses that do not make their products in America with tariffs. He took questions afterward from five world leaders in investments and energy and criticized Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan for not doing business with conservative companies.
O’Leary responded to this move as "just the way [Trump] is."
"We’ve been listening to Trump for 12 years," O’Leary said. "If you don’t understand that at this point, he's not gonna change. He'll pick someone out of a crowd, out of a sector, and he’ll say something like that. He’s trying to send a signal and yet there’s a lot of noise in it. But he’s bombastic, he's controversial. I've gotten used to it now. It doesn’t bother me anymore…It is what it is, everybody relax."
O’Leary said that Trump’s message is "different for different countries," such as Mexico and Canada, before explaining Trump’s main message.
"These messages are different for different countries. For example, Mexico, we’re gonna build a wall, but we also want you to make sure you stop sending illegal immigrants from yours and other countries, or you’re going to be tariffed."
O’Leary added, "To the Canadians, start spending on security at the northern border and pay your two percent to NATO and stop sending fentanyl from China over the border into the United States or you’re going to face tariffs."
During Trump’s address to the WEF, he said, "My message to every business in the world is very simple: Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth. But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff."
"He’s starting with a message that’s loud and clear," O’Leary said. "Get in line, do what you said you were going to do, or you’re going to face a wicked barrier to come into the world’s largest market. And it’s going to affect your economy. I heard it loud and clear."
During Trump’s second presidential campaign, he repeatedly threatened to tariff imports from China and the European Union, calling tariffs "the greatest thing ever invented."
"I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Dec. 20. "Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!"