Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday that the Trump administration is prepared for the short-term market turbulence following the unveiling of sweeping new tariffs, asserting that the American people will ultimately “reap the benefits” of a more secure and prosperous economy.
Appearing on Rob Schmitt Tonight on Newsmax, Vance addressed the sharp 1,679-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average — a market jolt that came one day after President Donald Trump announced a broad slate of reciprocal tariffs targeting dozens of countries in a move the White House dubbed “Liberation Day.”
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“We’re feeling good,” Vance told Schmitt. “Look, I frankly thought in some ways it could be worse in the markets, because this is a big transition… It’s like a patient who was very sick. We did the operation, and now it’s time to make the patient better.”
The tariffs, which include a baseline 10% levy on imports from roughly 60 nations, impose higher duties on countries the administration accuses of taking unfair advantage of American trade policies. Notably, China, which has a 67% tariff on U.S. goods, will now face a 34% tariff from the U.S., while Israel faces a 17% tariff in response to its 33% rate.
Vance framed the tariffs as a long-overdue reset of American economic policy, which he said for decades rewarded offshoring and hollowed out the domestic manufacturing base.
“American economic policy has rewarded people who ship jobs overseas. It’s taxed our workers. It’s made our supply chains more brittle, and it’s made our country less prosperous, less free, and less secure,” he said.
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The Vice President cited a personal example to illustrate the stakes, sharing how one of his children recently needed an antibiotic that is no longer manufactured in the United States. “It’s a ridiculous thing,” Vance said, criticizing America’s dependence on foreign supply chains for critical pharmaceuticals and medical goods.
“That’s fundamentally what this is about — the national security of manufacturing and making the things that we need, from steel to pharmaceuticals,” he added.
Trump’s tariff plan has been met with criticism from some on Wall Street, who warn that higher import costs could fuel inflation and hurt investor confidence. But Vance dismissed Thursday’s market dip as short-term noise.
“One bad day in the stock market… we’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America,” he said. “More importantly, we care the most about American workers and American small businesses.”
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Vance, who hails from Middletown, Ohio — a city once home to thousands of steelworkers — recalled the dramatic decline in factory jobs in his hometown as emblematic of what he called decades of failed economic policies.
“My town… had 10,000 great American steelworkers. Now we probably have 1,500,” Vance said. “President Trump ran on changing it. He promised he would change it, and now he has. I think Americans are going to reap the benefits.”
The tariffs go into effect April 5, with additional measures expected to target specific industries in the weeks ahead as part of the administration’s “Make America Wealthy Again” campaign.
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