Donald Trump claimed The New York Times misquoted him when confronted by moderator Neil Cavuto Thursday night at the GOP debate over his alleged support for a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods.
Trump explained that this was taken out of context and that The New York Times was asking him about what to do with North Korea.
“That’s wrong, it’s wrong, it’s The New York Times. They’re always wrong. They were asking me about what to do with North Korea. China, they don’t like to tell us, but they have total control just about of North Korea. They can solve the problem of North Korea if they wanted to, but they taunt us…without China North Korea doesn’t even eat,” said Trump
Trump continued to defend his hypothetical tariff on the premise continued “unfairness” from China:
We have very unfair trade with China, we’re going to have a trade deficit of $505 billion this year with China, a lot of this is because they devalue their currency. What I said to the New York Times is we have great economic power over China, and if we wanted to use that…and where the 45% comes in, that would be the amount based on their devaluations, that we should get…if they don’t start treating us fairly and stop devaluing and let their currency rise so our companies can compete, and we don’t the lose millions of jobs we’re losing I certainly start would start taxing goods that come in from China. Who the hell has to lose $505 billion a year?