“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary urged the Trump administration to articulate a clear position on its tariff policy, saying the mixed messages from the White House have been “chaotic.”
“It’s a little chaotic from the point of view that you don’t get a consistent message out of the administration. I admit that’s a problem,” O’Leary told Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney in an interview Monday, which was highlighted by Mediaite.
“You know, [Commerce Secretary Howard] Lutnick says one thing and then [Interior Secretary Doug] Burgum says another,” he continued.
“That’s got to get cleaned up, and that’s self-inflicted,” he added. “They can fix that.”
President Trump announced a 10-percent baseline tariff and additional “reciprocal” tariffs on scores of countries earlier this month. He had said he was not considering a pause in the reciprocal tariffs, but he then reversed course and said he would lower the increased rates to 10 percent for most countries for 90 days.
Even some members of Trump’s party have raised questions about what the president’s ultimate goal is — whether the tariffs are a negotiating tactic to get better deals for the U.S. or whether Americans should expect a fundamental shift toward a protectionist foreign policy.
O’Leary suggested, however, that he thinks tariff fears are overblown, saying there’s an ongoing negotiation with China and that he thinks the U.S. has leverage. Trump has increased tariffs on China to 145 percent.
Asked whether America holds “real heavy-duty cards in the negotiation with China,” O’Leary said, “It does, Stuart, because all that stuff that’s made in the factories, almost 39 percent of it is consumed by Americans.”
O’Leary said if Chinese President Xi Jinping can’t sell those goods, “those people don’t have jobs. And that’s going to be a bad outcome for him, really bad outcome, and he knows it.”
“That is the one massive leverage that we have at the table,” O’Leary continued. “If this goes on too long, there will be unemployment or there’s going to be massive inflation as he prints money to pay these people in his country.”
“It’s a hundred percent stalemate. He’s got to come to the table,” he added.