AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank personality, Mark Cuban, offered an economics lesson to some MAGA influencers on Thursday night after he questioned what exactly Donald Trump means when he said he can bring back the car industry by the “TAXATION OF FOREIGN NATIONS.”
Cuban reacted to Trump’s remarks earlier in the day and wrote, “Trump said this at his speech today in Michigan.” He added:
“We’re going to bring back the car industry,” Trump said in our interview. “We’re not going to let it disappear. We’re going to bring back jobs, we’re going to bring back factories and make Michigan very successful again. And we can do that very easily through the TAXATION OF FOREIGN NATIONS”Can someone explain to me how we would tax a foreign nation?
A pro-Trump user replied to Cuban, “It’s called a tariff, Mark. Come on, how are you a businessman but don’t know what a tariff is?”
Cuban, who has routinely engaged in good faith debates on X,
“As an example , Walmart imports billions and billions of goods. If there is a 10 pct tariff, Walmart pays the US government 10pcf on those billions, and guess who they pass that cost on to?” Cuban added.
Outkick’s Tomi Lahren replied to Cuban as well, “Do you not know what a tariff is?”
“I do Tomi. The question is whether or not he does. Seriously. Why didn’t he just say the word tariff? Why does everyone always have to translate what he says, rather than him just being clear and making his point directly?” Cuban replied.
Ex-Trump advisor Stephen Miller also replied, “They’re called tariffs, Mark, and they built America.”
“So why didn’t he just use the word Tariff Stephen? If they are such a great tool, and they built America, why not just proudly state what he is going to do?” hit back Cuban.
Cuban later further argued, “You do realize megan, that if the goal is to bring more business and jobs and manufacturing to the USA , he could just say “Buy American”!”
When pressed, Cuban further dug into his issues with tariffs, long the center of Trump’s economic policies:
Companies buy overseas because it’s cheaper.Unfortunately, Americans historically, will not buy American goods if they are more expensive.While it sounds
really nice to add a tariff to the cost of an import so that we can make them here, how long do you think that takes, and what will happen to prices in the interim.And also realize that the materials required to manufacture those products sometimes are only available overseas.I have two companies that have built robotics based factories here. One moved almost all of its assembly from China here.It has been great for business, but it took YEARS and was expensive.Tariffs are the worst possible incentive for all but a few products. and they almost always cosr consumers more money.Instead of tariffs, we need incentives to move manufacturing here to robotics.
Read Cuban’s full thread here.