Donald Trump Calls Tariffs “A Beautiful Thing”

Among the many words employed to describe the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump‘s administration, “beautiful” is almost certainly a new one. In an interview with Laura Ingraham on Thursday, the president said that, in his opinion, “tariffs are a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful word if you know how to use them properly.”

The president promised to impose a “beautiful” 5% tariff on all Mexican goods starting Monday, which may be raised, even up to 25%, unless the Mexican government took steps to stem the “invasion” of South American migrants coming to the U.S. through Mexico. But on Friday, he announced a deal with Mexico after a few minor concessions from the Mexican negotiating team.

In familiar fashion, Trump had stated that these migrants “send in $500 billion worth of drugs, they kill 100,000 people. They ruin a million families every year, If you look at that, that’s really an invasion without the guns.”

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New fears of sharp price increases have rattled the stock-market and have concerned manufacturers and farmers on both sides of the border. Mexico has stated that any tariffs imposed by the U.S. will be matched in Mexico on American goods.

Mexico’s government has offered to deploy 6,000 troops to its southern border and impose harsher asylum laws in order to avert any tariffs, but any acquiescence to the Trump administration is expected to hurt the image of President Lopez Obrador in Mexico.

According to Michelle Casario, assistant professor of economics at Villanova University, Americans should expect to see higher prices on a range of products, “from avocados to tomatoes…and even higher prices at the gas pump.”