President Trump on Tariffs on Wakanda

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP

ON THE IMPOSITION OF TARIFFS

AGAINST THE COUNTRY OF WAKANDA

THE OVAL OFFICE

THE WHITE HOUSE

PRESIDENT TRUMP: First off, I want to say that we have a fake press in this country, a phony press. We don’t have freedom of the press in this country. We have a phony press. They’re dishonest, most of them. We have some fine people from — fine journalists and reporters and companies. But most of them are fake and phony. They should be ashamed of themselves, and they hurt our country.

There have been reports, fake, misleading reports filled with lies, that my administration has removed the country of Wakanda from the list of countries that have tariffs tracked by the Department of Agriculture.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I don’t know how much you know about Wakanda but I have recently watched a series of documentaries about them.

Q: Where did you see the documentaries, Mr. President?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It was some channel. Maybe Discovery, The History Channel, National Geographic….

Q: Disney+?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They were on a channel. And, I don’t know if you know this but they are so wealthy. One of he richest nations on Earth because of this thing called Vibranium. And for years, they lied about it. They pretended that they were some poor country that needed aid.

Wakanda has been ripping us off for years. President Clinton, President Bush, and President Obama, and others should have done this long before me. My life would be much easier, although I enjoy doing it, my life would be much easier if I said, “Let Wakanda continue to rip off the United States.” All right? Much easier, but I can’t do that.

This isn’t my trade war. This is a trade war that should have taken place a long time ago, by a lot of other presidents. Somebody had to do it, so I’ve been taking on Wakanda. I am the chosen one and no one has been tougher on Wakanda than me.

You need to see these documentaries.

Because of me, Wakanda has finally started paying back what they owe the United States. The documentary shows how they just built a community center in Oakland.

It wouldn’t have been my first choice for a location but it’s a first step.

The tariffs will remain in place until they have paid us back every cent that they owe us.

i won’t be taking questions.