Longtime TV host and bestselling author Bill O'Reilly said Thursday that President Donald Trump likely regrets how he rolled out his tariffs but told Newsmax that the president is "nimble enough" to make changes.
Further, O'Reilly told "Finnerty" that while Trump's goal to negotiate fair trade deals is laudable, it's not wise to "drop everything all at once" on a system that doesn't handle uncertainty.
"You know he's nimble enough to now modify [tariffs] a little bit. The essential trying to get fair deals for America was a good thing. How could you object to that?" O'Reilly said. "But when you drop everything at once on a system that does not handle uncertainty, well, that's trouble. So I don't know if the Trump administration thought it out.
"When you mess with people's money, Rob, there's going to be unintended consequences. And that's what we saw," he told show host Rob Finnerty. "I'm hoping and I believe that Mr. Trump will get a much-improved world trade situation for the USA. I think he will get it. And maybe in six months this story won't even be a factor at all."
O'Reilly also said that the expiration date on goodwill with the MAGA wing of the Republican Party is "already reached."
"I mean, if you look at the polling now, people are reacting emotionally to their uncertainty in their portfolios. So the MAGA people are only 30, 35% of the Republican Party. And so when you add it all together, it's a big crew, but it's not a dominant crew," O'Reilly said. "And most people who voted for Donald Trump recognize that the Democrats and Joe Biden were horrendous, horrendous in governance. And Trump's first term was pretty successful. So it was logical that he got put back.
"But the cliche is 'I didn't sign up for this,' and then people's portfolios go down 10%, and they're going, 'Whoa.' And that's understandable," he said.
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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