‘Developing nation’ US can’t afford to subsidize India & China, says Trump
President Donald Trump says the United States is a “developing nation” and can’t afford to subsidize countries like India and China anymore. He said the US is going to stop the “crazy” practice.
Trump was addressing a cheering crowd at a fundraiser in Fargo, North Dakota on Friday and announced that he wants to stop helping to fund growing economies like India and China, focusing on the US instead.
READ MORE: Trump says he’s ready to hit China with $267bn in additional tariffs
“We are a developing nation, too, OK? We are. As far as I'm concerned, we are a developing nation. I want to be put down in that category because we are growing, too. We are going to grow faster than anybody,” said Trump.
Trump also accused the World Trade Organization (WTO) of allowing China to become a “great economic power” by categorizing it as a developing country. “Under that category they get subsidies,” he said.
“We have some of these countries that are considered growing economies. Some countries that have not matured enough yet, so we are paying them subsidies. Whole thing is crazy. Like India, like China, like others we say, ‘Oh, they’re growing actually,’” President Trump said.
“We have to pay them money… but we’re going to stop it. We’re going to stop it. We have stopped it,” he added.
The president then proceeded to criticize the tariff war between China and the US, stating that, while he’s “a big fan” of Chinese President Xi Jinping, “We have to be fair.”
“We can’t let China take $500 billion a year out of the United States and rebuild itself,” he said.
Trump ended his tangent by saying the US should be getting paid for providing military aid to these countries. “We’re watching the whole world and they take it for granted.” he said.
“For years and years, we've been protecting these countries. They're making a fortune. They've had very little military cost. We have the biggest military cost in the world. Most of it goes to protecting outside countries, some of whom don’t even like us,” Trump said.
The president ended his talk by saying that military protection has encouraged respect from some countries, but said that once they become wealthy, they should have to pay.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
