The former president and Bloomberg News’ editor-in-chief engaged in a spirited hourlong exchange, covering topics ranging from immigration to foreign relations.
CHICAGO—Former President Donald Trump says experts were “wrong about everything” when they predicted his policies could cause negative economic effects.
Trump made that remark Oct. 15 to Bloomberg News’ editor-in-chief, John Micklethwait, during a meeting of the Economic Club of Chicago.
About 600 people were in the audience during the hourlong interview in the Imperial Ballroom of the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park hotel.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the Nov. 5 election, declined Bloomberg’s invitation to do a similar interview, Micklethwait said, adding he hoped she will reconsider. The Epoch Times received no reply to a request for comment from the Harris campaign.
Here are five takeaways from Trump’s interview, which occurred as recent opinion polls show an upward trend for him in the presidential race.
Why Trump Likes Tariffs
Trump said, while driving through Chicago, he saw “steel mills and factories that are empty and falling down. Some have been converted to senior citizens homes. But that’s not going to do the trick.”
He promised that if he wins reelection, he would implement business-friendly policies such as reduced corporate taxes and increased tariffs. Such measures would “bring the companies back,” he said.
Micklethwait repeatedly challenged the former president about the possible negative effects of tariffs.
“Critics say your tariffs will end up being like a national sales tax … and push up the cost,” for consumers, Micklethwait said.
Trump replied: “All you have to do is build your plant in the United States, and you don’t have any tariffs.”
Kent Gray, a member of the Illinois Trump delegation, told The Epoch Times that Trump “did a good job explaining to Bloomberg News and the wider audience here that there are two ways to use tariffs.”
Bringing in money is the obvious, more traditional purpose of tariffs. But tariffs also can be used to push companies to manufacture goods inside the United States rather than in foreign countries.
Trump said one company mothballed its plan to build a large auto plant in Mexico after seeing that his reelection campaign is going well. He added that a U.S. cabinetmaker thanked Trump for implementing tariffs on foreign-made cabinets after that competition nearly forced him out of business.
“President Trump uses tariffs as an attempt to level the fair-trade playing field,” Gray said.
Investors, Analysts Are ‘Wrong’
Micklethwait said some investors have been chattering about “the Trump trade,” meaning that people are betting that Trump’s proposed policies would drive up debt, inflation, and interest rates. “Are the investors wrong?” Micklethwait asked.
Trump responded: “Yeah, I had four years—no inflation.”
Micklethwait pushed back, saying that the Wall Street Journal has also joined a chorus of voices concerned that some of Trump’s policies would drive up debt.
“What does the Wall Street Journal know?” Trump said.
“They’ve been wrong about everything. So have you, by the way; you’ve been wrong,” he told Micklethwait. The interviewer said Trump was trying to turn the exchange into a debate.
Throughout the interview, Trump referred to his administration’s policies, saying they boosted the economy. In contrast, the policies supported by Harris and President Joe Biden have produced high inflation, Trump said.
A study published in the Brownstone Journal earlier this month found that inflation has been understated since 2019—and the United States has been in a recession since 2022.
Trump said the success of his policies depends partly upon the force of his personality and his relationships with world leaders.
“A lot of people say, ‘We love Trump’s policy, but we’d rather have another messenger, because we don’t like him; he’s a little bit crass,’” Trump said.
Yet, some of those same critics admit that the strength of Trump’s policies is tied to Trump himself, the former president said, referring to prior comments made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-N.C.).
“There are no Trump policies without the man, Donald Trump,” Graham stated in a Fox News interview in January 2023.
Graham gave several examples to illustrate what he meant by that statement. Trump’s high tariffs on Chinese goods “scared the crap out of Mexico,” Graham said.
To avoid similar tariffs, Mexico acquiesced to several of Trump’s demands, Graham said, including assigning thousands of Mexican soldiers to help secure the U.S.–Mexico border and curb illegal immigration.
Thus, Trump said, his reputation for following through on his actions gives him leverage as he implements his policies.
Putin Phone Calls?
Micklethwait asked Trump whether he had private phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin after leaving the White House, as asserted in journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book, “War.”
“I don’t comment on that,” Trump replied.
However, Trump said that if he did have such a discussion with Putin, “it’s a smart thing.”
“If I’m friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing and not a bad thing in terms of a country,” Trump said.
Micklethwait later told Trump, “You seem to imply that you had talked to him, without actually confirming it.”
Trump reiterated: “I said I don’t comment on those things.”
Trump previously told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that Woodward was a “storyteller” who had “lost his marbles.”
In addition, two of Trump’s top spokesmen pushed back after Woodward’s book said an unnamed Trump aide divulged being asked to leave the room so Trump could talk to Putin on the phone.
Trump has repeatedly stated that he knows how to quickly broker a peace deal between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two nations have been at war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump Champions Legal Immigration
Micklethwait shifted the discussion toward immigration, telling Trump, “I know it’s a very emotive issue for you.”
Micklethwait said, from a businessperson’s viewpoint, “look at the full effect of taking a lot of people out of the workforce,” referring to Trump’s plan to begin mass deportations of illegal immigrants if he wins a second term.
“The Congressional Budget Office is banking on the fact that there’ll be $9 trillion added to the GDP [gross domestic product] of America over the next 10 years by immigrants,” Micklethwait said. “You want to stop that process for all the people who run businesses in the audience.”
He then asked Trump whether he thought it was OK to “have a slightly smaller economy in exchange for having the immigration control.”
“Simple answer,” Trump said, “I want a lot of people to come into our country, but I want them to come in legally.”
“I like immigration, but they’ve got to come in legally,” Trump said. He pointed to a recent federal report revealing that more than 425,000 illegal immigrants, including more than 13,000 convicted killers, have been freed into the United States.
Trump says he wants to encourage immigration for “people that can love our country.”
Election Night Focus
Asked which state could determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, Trump said Pennsylvania seems to be the one cited most often.
But he also said Michigan and Arizona are important states to watch.
He thinks his campaign is going well in all three of those states.
The RealClearPolitics (RCP) average of opinion polls showed that as of Oct. 15, Trump had pulled slightly ahead of Harris in those three battleground states, plus three others: Nevada, North Carolina, and Georgia. Harris was still maintaining an edge over Trump in Wisconsin. Nationwide, Harris is leading Trump by 1.3 percent, the RCP said.
Nearly all of those leads were 1 percent or less, leaving the race a statistical dead heat.
Rather than relying solely on opinion polls, Trump suggested that tallies for early voting and mail-in votes are beginning to reveal how many Republicans versus Democrats are casting ballots.
“I think we’re doing well,” he said, adding that the Republican Party is the party of “common sense.”
“We’re really a party of: We need borders. We need fair elections. We don’t want men playing in women’s sports. We don’t want transgender operations without parental consent,” he said, adding, “99.9 percent is common sense.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.