Barack Obama has been quiet for a while now, but he finally spoke up, weighing in on all the new tariff decisions.
We all know how Trump recently announced new tariffs on global imports
On April 2, Trump came out with a new batch of tariffs, going after countries that send stuff into the U.S. He laid out this “baseline” 10% tax that hits pretty much everyone. But there’s also a list, around 60 countries long, of what he’s calling the ‘worst offenders’ that are getting hit harder.
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Japan’s looking at 24%, South Africa’s got 30%, and Vietnam’s at 46%.
The 44th President of the United States has finally had his say at his recent visit to Hamilton College
Obama showed up at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, last Thursday, on April 4. He sat down with the college president, Steven Tepper, and during the chat, he mentioned he’s still working on part two of his presidential memoirs. He also took the chance to say a few things about gun laws in the U.S…. Let’s just say he didn’t hold back on that.
He expressed his strong disagreement with whatever Trump is doing
The 63-year-old former president strongly disagrees with Trump’s decisions. Obama didn’t sugarcoat it, saying, “I have deep differences of opinion with my most immediate successor — who’s now president once again,” he said.
He kept going, “There are a host of policies that we could be discussing where I have strong opinions.” He definitely didn’t seem too happy about where things are headed. He mentioned he feels like the government’s commitment to real, solid principles has “eroded.”
He claimed that the tariffs are actually NOT good for America, unlike what Trump thinks
Obama didn’t hold back on the whole tariff situation either. “When I watch some of what’s going on now, it does not — look, I don’t think what we just witnessed in terms of economic policy and tariffs is going to be good for America, but that’s a specific policy.”
He’s not on board with how things are being handled. He basically thinks it’s NOT going to be “good for America.”
Trump defended his move as ‘economic justice’
Trump, using his IEEPA authority to push through the tariffs, thinks the new taxes will get U.S. consumers to start buying more American-made goods instead of going for imports.
The 10% tariff on all countries kicked in on April 5. As for the bigger tariffs on countries with the largest trade deficits? Those are set to start on April 9 at 12:01 EDT.
Obama also expressed his worries about threats to free speech
Obama also brought up something that’s clearly been bothering him. He didn’t name names, but the message was loud and clear.
“I’m more deeply concerned with a federal government that threatens universities if they don’t give up students who are exercising their right to free speech.”
Barack then dropped a powerful eight-word remark
Then, he dropped this powerful eight-word line: “Imagine if I had done any of this?
Obama didn’t hold back, urging citizens to take responsibility
“It is up to all of us to fix this. It’s not going to be because somebody comes and saves you. The most important office in this democracy is the citizen, the ordinary person who says, no, that’s not right.”
