President Donald Trump appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box Tuesday morning to discuss what he called historic achievements during his first six months of his second term, including new trade deals worth trillions and plans to slash pharmaceutical prices.
The wide-ranging interview touched on everything from interest rates to Chinese negotiations, as Trump outlined his administration’s economic agenda.
“We’re taking in trillions of dollars… If you look, Japan — we’re taking in $550 billion, and … that’s OUR money,” Trump said. “European Union — $650 billion… and they’re going to buy $750 billion worth of our energy.”
The President unveiled plans to match European drug prices through his ‘Most Favored Nation’ pricing initiative.
“For 30 years, Europe has had drug prices that are, in many cases, one-tenth the cost of drugs here. … We’re not going to pay ten times more for a pill than they pay in Europe,” he explained.
Trump praised the decline in foreign-born workers since taking office.
“That’s a great number, by the way, because it means we’re putting AMERICANS to work,” he said.
The President took aim at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over interest rate policy.
“I wanted [rate cuts] a long time ago. Jay Powell is highly political… Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell. He’s too late, always,” Trump said.
New tariff announcements are coming soon, Trump revealed.
“Within the next week or so, we’re going to be announcing tariffs on pharmaceuticals. … We want pharmaceuticals made in our country.”
On China relations, Trump suggested progress toward a deal.
“I’ll end up having a meeting [with China] before the end of the year, most likely, if we make a deal. … We’re getting very close to a deal.”
Trump also criticized India’s trade practices and threatened higher tariffs.
“We do very, very little business with India because their tariffs are so high,” he said, adding he might raise the current 25% tariff “very substantially over the next 24 hours because they’re buying Russian oil.”
The President accused banks of discriminating against conservatives.
“They discriminated against many conservatives… I believe what they did is they went to the regulators,” Trump claimed.
Trump also praised Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s performance. “He’s doing a really good job. We made the greatest trade deals in the history of our country.”
Addressing employment statistics, Trump alleged the previous administration had manipulated job numbers.
“The numbers were rigged. Biden wasn’t doing well; he was doing poorly. They announced these phenomenal numbers… then they did the biggest revision, I think in history, of almost 900,000 jobs.”