Trump appeals to common sense, defends his economic plan in Bloomberg interview

Less than a month before the presidential election, Donald Trump stopped by the Economic Club of Chicago for an extensive one-on-one interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. The Republican candidate for president talked about the 2024 key states, the GOP agenda and clashed with the interviewer when it came to discussing his economic plan.

The interview lasted more than an hour, but the most commented moments were when Trump defended the tariffs on foreign products. According to Micklethwait, this proposal by the former president will hurt consumers, the 40 million people who make a living from trade and will have "a serious effect on the overall economy."

"I agree, it’s going to have a massive effect. A positive effect. It’s going to be a positive effect. It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong," Trump replied, sparking applause from the audience.

In turn, Micklethwait remarked that his policies could increase inflation, to which Trump reminded him of the following: "Yes, I had four years - no inflation."

Returning to tariffs, Trump claimed that, in reality, his policies would force companies to relocate back to the United States, so they should not face them.

"No, there are no tariffs – all you have to do is build your plant in the United States and you don't have any tariffs. That's what I want. (...) The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States and build a factory in the United States so it doesn't have to pay the tariff," Trump continued.

"The party of common sense"

In turn, Trump was asked about the current state of the Republican Party, which he defined simply as the party of "common sense."

"Forget about conservative, liberal. We’re, let’s say, conservative, but we’re really a party of ‘We need borders. We need fair elections. We don’t want men playing in women’s sports. We don’t want transgender operations without parental consent,’" he explained.

"It is 99.9% common sense. It really is common sense. I say we’re really a party of common sense, and we want to have great people in our country," he added.

The key state? Pennsylvania

In another part of the interview, Micklethwait asked Trump what he considered the most important state for the upcoming fifth of November.

According to polls, there is virtually a dead heat in the seven key states, although the latest trend appears to favor the Republican.

"They say Pennsylvania. think we’re doing very well there. I think you look at Michigan, too, and I’m doing very well," Trump said. "We’re way up in Pennsylvania. We’re way up in Michigan. We’re doing very well in Arizona. In fact, somebody said they’re going to pull the plug in Arizona – they’re going to give it up because it looks like we’re quite a ways ahead," Trump said.