Fox Business host Charles Payne said Monday that the “fear mongering” over the stock market due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs needs to stop, adding that tariffs have benefited the U.S. in the past.
In response to the “national emergency” of illegal migrants and transnational drug trafficking, Trump announced Saturday an additional 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, along with a 10% tariff on imports from China. On “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Watters asked Payne for his thoughts on Trump’s negotiation tactics, noting that some countries have already reached deals with the president.
“The economic part of this, the trait and balance of all of this is what I think President Trump really wants to get at. Now, there’s another component to that, and that’s these American companies that have chosen to set up shop right over the border in Mexico. They complain about, ‘Well, look, it’s a supply chain. A car goes to America, then Canada, then Mexico, then America,’” Payne said. “Why? It doesn’t have to!”
“What’s really nuts about it is if you take a few points off of these major corporations off their bottom lines, and the stock went down today, six months from now, it’ll be higher. Six years from now, it’ll be 100% higher. I mean, the market adjusts. OK. The stock doesn’t trade at a P.E. ratio of 26. It trades at a P.E. ratio of 25. It adjusts. All of this near-term fearmongering, really, we have to get past this,” Payne added.
Just two days after the president implemented the tariff order, China, Mexico, and Canada were in talks with Trump to settle a deal and reach an agreement. In Mexico’s response Monday morning, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced she would deploy 10,000 of her country’s National Guard soldiers to the southern border to curb the flow of drugs and illegal immigration, in exchange for a month-long pause on their 25% tariff.
However, following Trump’s announcement of the tariffs, Democrats pushed claims that tariffs would drive up prices for Americans. Payne continued to push back against their narrative, arguing that tariffs do not automatically lead to inflation.
WATCH:
“We were told wrong. That was the craziest part about all of this is you just go and check history,” Payne said. “For instance, tariffs mean automatic inflation. Look at Smoot-Hawley. Well, go look at it! It was the greatest deflationary period of our time. In fact, that was the issue. ‘Well, tariffs can hurt the economy.’”
“Look at the Roaring Twenties. We had the Emergency Tariff Act in 1921. Then we have the Fordney-McCumber Act in 1922 that went all the way through 1930. The market [went] up 500%. Go back to McKinley. The same thing,” Payne said. “It’s so ironic. Tariffs actually worked, and they worked very well.”
Payne went on to say that the president has also pushed for both Greenland and then making Canada the 51st state, adding that tariffs could help drive “businesses back” to the U.S.
“We want to bring manufacturing back. We want to really, really secure long-term prosperity. A few years ago, when all the experts said China was going to pass America, what was the main reason for that? China plays the long game. We got to play the long game,” Payne added. “You have people out there one hour into the tariffs already declaring us losers. So we’ve got to play a longer game. The longer game is actually using our might while we have it.”
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News/”Jesse Watters Primetime”)
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
