Vice President J.D. Vance praised the implementation of tariffs despite the massive stock market drop on Thursday. He stated that the Trump administration was “feeling great” and reassured a midwestern GOP Senator that American farmers will be among the ones who “reap” the rewards in the end.
Vance appeared on “Rob Schmitt Tonight” to discuss the Dow Jones’s 1,679-point drop Thursday in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Vance said that “one bad stock market day” will result in a “booming economy for a very long time.”
“We’re feeling good. In some ways, I thought it could have been worse on the markets. This is a major transition. As the president said, it’s similar to a very sick patient. Now that we’ve done the surgery, it’s now time to get the patient well.” Vance stated, “That’s what we are doing.”
Vance said to Schmitt, “Look, a bad day on the stock market is nothing compared to the things President Trump has said today. I believe he’s correct about this. We’re going to have a booming market for a very long time because we are reinvesting here in the United States of America. And, more importantly, Wall Street has done well. We want them to continue doing well. We care most about the American worker and small business. They’re going to be the ones that benefit most from these policies.”
Vance reminded Trump that the tariffs weren’t a surprise. Trump had said what he intended to do months before.
“[Y]ou were promoting economic policies that encouraged the export of our jobs to China, instead of investing in American workers,” Vance stated that President Trump ran on changing the system; he had promised to change it, and now he’s doing it.
“Frankly, we could have raised the tariffs a lot more,” he said. “But the President is trying to convey a message saying, yeah, we are going to be kind. We’re going be a bit discounted.”
The vice president addressed concerns raised by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who on Thursday cosponsored a bill that gave Congress the power to set tariffs.
Chuck Grassley is worried about farmers, and I can understand that. Here’s my message for Chuck Grassley. Do our farmers gain when foreign competitors send a large amount of their farm products into the United States but refuse to allow our great farmers to send beef or other exports to these countries? Vance explained that the problem is that our farmers are not allowed to export beef or other products.
“The president implemented reciprocal tariffs because of this unfairness. Fairness is the goal,” Vance said. “Chuck Grassley is a nice guy. I know that he is worried about our farmers. But the best way to protect American farmers is by telling foreign countries they can’t block American farmers’ products from entering their country. You have to open your markets in the same way we have been doing business for decades.”
