Mark Cuban joined a number of critics who mocked Donald Trump on Saturday after the Republican presidential nominee’s false claim that imposing tariffs doesn’t “affect our country.”
The former president, in a meandering speech at a campaign rally, pledged to impose tariffs on foreign-made products from China and other countries in order to bring jobs “back home” in an effort to take in “billions and billions of dollars.”
“A tariff is a tax on a foreign country, that’s the way it is whether you like it or not. A lot of people like to say, ‘Oh, it’s a tax on us.’ No, no, no,” Trump told the crowd at the rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
He later continued, “It’s a tax on a country that’s ripping us off and stealing our jobs. And it’s a tax that doesn’t affect our country.”
Trump has previously pushed the false claim on tariffs despite multiple media outlets noting that American consumers and industries have bore much of the cost of his tariffs.
Several economists recently told Newsweek that Trump’s tariffs proposal would raise prices for U.S. consumers and such a plan would hurt American companies, as well.
Cuban, a billionaire and frequent Trump critic, took to social media to question the former president’s tariffs claim.
“Any importers want to explain how they deal with tariffs on say food or agricultural products ?” he wrote on X.
Robert Shrum, director of the University of Southern California Center for the Political Future and a speechwriter for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), called Trump’s remarks “simply economically illiterate.”
“No wonder he apparently had a mediocre record at Wharton,” Shrum wrote.
You can check out more reactions to Trump’s remarks below: