Donald Trump ‘loves tariffs,’ labels himself a tariff man: Professor Paul Poast

United States President Donald Trump has long embraced tariffs as a central policy tool, proudly referring to himself as a “tariff man” since his first term in office, according to Associate Professor Paul Poast of the University of Chicago.

Speaking to ANI, Poast said, “US President Donald Trump loves tariffs. Going back to his first term, he labelled himself a tariff man. Going into this term, throughout the campaign, he kept bringing up tariffs as a policy that he was going to favour and that has proven to be the case during his first several months in office.”

Poast explained that Trump’s demand for imposing tariffs is “a little bit understandable” due to his criticism of countries continuing to buy oil from Russia despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. “It’s a little bit understandable why he’s demanding that he’s going to impose tariffs, because one of his biggest critiques of European countries, India, China, continue to buy oil from Russia, and that has enabled Russia to continue to fund its war machine,” he said.

On India’s position, Poast described it as a strategic and pragmatic one. “Countries like India have really just taken advantage of the fact that Russia has been selling this oil at a discount. I kind of view India as recently being the epitome of the realpolitik country. They’re like, we’re not condoning the war, we might as well take advantage of the cheap energy, and that’s been a big part of where they’ve come in.”

The professor added that this situation has strengthened Trump’s resolve to adopt a tougher stance. “I think that has now led Trump to say, No, that’s not acceptable because the best way to stop Russia is to completely cut off their ability to sell oil,” Poast stated.

Meanwhile, speaking at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Trump warned that he was prepared to impose heavy tariffs on Russia if it refused to end the war in Ukraine.

“Russia’s war in Ukraine is not making Russia look good. In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs,” Trump said.

He also expressed disappointment in Russian President Vladimir Putin saying, “He has let me down. I mean, he’s killing many people and he’s losing more people than he’s, you know, than he’s killing. I mean, frankly, Russian soldiers are being killed at a higher rate than the Ukrainian soldiers,” Trump said during a news conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week.

Earlier, Trump called on NATO and European nations to take stronger action against Russia, particularly criticising Europe for continuing to buy oil from Moscow.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said, “They’re not doing the job. NATO has to get together. Europe has to get together. Europe is my friend, but Europe is buying oil from Russia. I don’t want them to buy oil. And the sanctions that they’re putting on are not tough enough. And I’m willing to do sanctions, but they’re going to have to toughen up their sanctions commensurate with what I’m doing.”

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