Trump claims his administration finding undiscovered money nobody knew existed

WASHINGTON, DC: On Wednesday, December 3, President Donald Trump said his administration was “finding” previously undiscovered money — funds no one realized existed. He spoke during a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office, when asked if he planned to renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement signed during his first term.

“It expires in about a year,” Trump said. “Look, Mexico and Canada have taken advantage of the United States like just about every other country, in all fairness.”.

Donald Trump says tariffs would help pay off national debt

Trump then shifted to the tariffs he imposed on imports from dozens of countries, arguing that the revenue was revealing billions of dollars the government had not accounted for. “We had a lot of stupid people running the country. That’s why we have $38 trillion in debt,” he said. “But the beautiful thing about the tariffs is we’ll start paying off that debt. The money coming in — they’re finding money in our country now that they never knew existed.” 

He pointed to a recent example. “The other day, $30 billion. ‘Where did it come from?’ I said, ‘Why don’t we check the tariff shelf?’ They said, ‘Sir, that tariff hasn’t started yet. It doesn’t start until January.’ I said, ‘No, it started two months ago.’ They call back, ‘Sir, you’re right — it was from tariffs.’ Now we have a whole different country,” Trump said. 

Trump added that he hopes the Supreme Court will uphold the constitutionality of the tariffs. In November, several justices — including some appointed by Trump — expressed doubts about the administration’s argument that the president can unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs. “I pray the Supreme Court understands the importance of this,” he said, calling the groups that sued to block the tariffs “bad people.”

Donald Trump calls affordability crisis ‘hoax’ created by Democrats

A day earlier, on Tuesday, December 2, Trump dismissed concerns about affordability raised by Fox Business reporter Edward Lawrence during a White House Cabinet meeting. Trump said Democrats created the “hoax” surrounding affordability and insisted his administration had been lowering prices. 

“I think they’re getting fake news from guys like you,” Trump told the reporter. “Affordability’s a hoax that was started by Democrats who caused the problem of pricing. And they didn’t end it. They lost in a landslide.”

He said his administration turned around the economy through lower energy costs. “Look at energy, look at gasoline. That’s the simplest, and it’s the biggest. Because if energy comes down, everything comes down,” Trump said. 

Trump also claimed voters overwhelmingly supported him because of these economic gains. “We won every swing state, we won the popular vote, we won everything,” he said. “You take a look at districts — it was 2,750 to 525 — because that was an affordability problem.”