Reporter To Trump: 'Should Americans Buy Cars Now?'

2 days ago

At a press briefing in the Oval Office, President Trump was asked if people should buy cars now before his tariffs take effect.

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Transcript

00:00Should Americans buy cars now if they want to avoid higher prices?

00:05And then, just to follow up...

00:06No, I don't think so.

00:07I think you're going to have a country that's going to boom.

00:08I just spoke to Tim Cook of Apple.

00:10He's investing $500 billion in the United States, which he would have never...

00:15He told me, I would never have done it if you lost the election, and I would have never

00:19done it if there wasn't a tariff system that is an incentive for people to come.

00:24And remember, there are no tariffs.

00:27All you have to do is do your work right here.

00:29If you have your company here, if you build your product, make your product, make your

00:33car or whatever it is you're making, no tariffs.

00:37And we're going to have...

00:38I think, Scott, I would say we're close to $4 trillion, even going close to $5 trillion.

00:44Now, we haven't had that for years.

00:48If you add up years, they haven't invested like that.

00:51And here we are in two months.

00:53We think we're up to close to $5 trillion of investment.

00:55They're going to build car plants.

00:56They're already building.

00:58Many of them have already started.

01:00And if you build a car in the United States...

01:02And one thing that we just...

01:03I just spoke with John Thune about.

01:06I just spoke to Mike Johnson about, Speaker.

01:10We're going to do something that has never been done in this country before.

01:13I'm very proud to say it was my idea.

01:15And so sometimes a simple idea, they say, how'd you think of that one?

01:19It's so simple.

01:20It was never done.

01:21If you buy a car in the United States that's made in the United States, if it's manufactured

01:26here, when you borrow money, if you borrow money, you have interest payments, we're

01:30going to let you deduct the interest payment for income tax reasons.

01:33And I think that's going to more than pay for itself.

01:36I think people are going to be...

01:38They've never had a deduction.

01:40You know, deductions are supposed to be for like rich people.

01:43And it's unfair to have that.

01:44But rich people are...

01:47I think I know more about deductions than any human being on Earth.

01:50But you know, the truth is that people that are middle-income people that buy a car and

01:55actually have to borrow money, they're going to now get an interest deduction on their

02:00car if it's made in the United States.

02:02If it's made someplace else, that won't take place.

02:05But car companies, as you know, are already expanding and building new plants.

02:09They've already started.

02:10And I think you're going to see numbers, Howard, you're seeing it.

02:14And Scott, you're seeing it.

02:16You're going to see numbers the likes of which you've never seen before.

02:19Yeah, please go.

Reporter To Trump: 'Should Americans Buy Cars Now?'

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