Bill O’Reilly, Chris Cuomo duke it out over Trump’s global tariffs

Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly sparred with NewsNation host Chris Cuomo over the impact of President Donald Trump’s newly imposed global tariffs during a Wednesday segment on “Cuomo.”

Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on nations charging imports from the U.S. in order to return manufacturing to the U.S. During the segment, O’Reilly argued that Trump’s tariffs will return jobs to the U.S. and in turn benefit the economy in the long term, which Cuomo argued was “highly speculative.”

“Lets’ go to Bernie Sanders, let’s go to the income inequality crew, why do you think there’s so much income inequality?” O’Reilly said. “Because the high paying union manufacturing jobs went overseas and were replaced by service jobs that don’t pay as much or public service or whatever. So what Trump clearly said is ‘I’m gonna bring back those manufacturing jobs, people are gonna invest in those plants in America. That’s gonna heighten the potential to earn money by Americans.”

“But that’s highly speculative,” Cuomo said. “First of all, most of the jobs we lost … no, it’s not a plan. It’s a guess, and here’s why it’s not a plan, it’s a guess. Here’s why it’s a guess what you call a plan. You don’t know that these tariffs will make people come back for two reasons. One, time. Okay? It takes a long time to repatriate. Two, even if they have to absorb the tariff, the cost structure is still way in their favor, especially when you don’t make them pay any taxes. Three, the number one reason that we lost jobs here wasn’t even just because of cheap labor, it was innovation. And innovation has only increased in manufacturing, meaning that there wouldn’t be as many jobs anyway.”

“That’s just bull,” O’Reilly responded.

WATCH:

O’Reilly then argued that major companies, including Apple, have already made deals with Trump to return manufacturing plants to the U.S, proving that the president’s tariffs are having an impact on the industry. In February, Apple announced a $500 billion investment for manufacturing in the U.S. and plans to hire 20,000 American workers over the next four years.

Union workers in the auto and steel industry praised Trump’s tariffs on Fox Business Wednesday, stating that the president’s policy will improve their industry by returning jobs to the U.S.

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