Perennial cable news target Geraldo Rivera flipped his script on President Donald Trump’s tariffs Wednesday night, praising him for “suckering China in” with a high-stakes game of chicken that left the communist government stranded on an island while tariffs for dozens of other nations vanished overnight.
Now a contributor at NewsNation after years as a Fox News guest, Rivera called Trump’s tactics “brilliant” as he reacted to the surprise 90-day pause on most global tariffs announced yesterday. The tariffs had been in effect since last week, when the president demanded that more than 70 countries with lopsided trade surpluses come to the White House and “make a deal” on terms more favorable to the United States.
“I believe that he ambushed China. I believe that he suckered the whole world into believing that he was going to go down in this harry carry, this suicide mission against the world,” Rivera said on “NewsNation Now.” He added: “I think with him it’s so much spontaneous, but I believe it evolved. I mean, Monday, so many people were feeling terrible pain. The markets were tanking. It was no end in sight. People were watching their 401Ks, their IRAs disappear.”
He continued: “The whole nation was, I think, trembling over the uncertainty of where we were going with this. He was picking a fight with the entire world. So I said Monday, ‘Isn’t the problem with China? Why are we getting everybody, U.K., European Union, Japan? China’s the problem.’ I couldn’t understand it,” he added. Rivera recently remembered having breakfast with friends, where they all agreed to maintain their positions in the stock market despite the turbulence.
“We all are talking. ‘Oh my God, this is awful, but we’re doing the right thing. You have to have courage. You have to stick it out.’ I went to my Twitter followers,” Rivera said. “I said, please don’t sell. This is on Sunday and Monday. Please don’t sell unless you absolutely have to. And then, you know, look what he does. Surprise. You know, this is why Trump is triumphant. This is why you can’t beat this guy.” Despite the temporary pain inflicted on the U.S. economy, Rivera believes Trump made the correct moves to counter a powerful adversary.
“China’s been cleaning our clock for a long time, making a lot of money on the U.S. trade in a lot of different ways. Dumping product, not taking ours at all,” Rivera said, the Daily Caller reported. “I think that what he did was brilliant. And a lot of people are heaving a huge sigh of relief. People were staring at the abyss. No one knew how far this was going to go, whether we really were off the cliff forever. And I just feel sorry for all the people who chickened out and sold out.”