John Oliver explains to Donald Trump how trade works
By Jeremy Dick
John Oliver took to his series Last Week Tonight to explain to the president just how trade works, showing just how costly Donald Trump’s mistakes could be.
It seems the president of the United States doesn’t understand trade very well, so John Oliver is here to help him out.
On last night’s Last Week Tonight, this topic was talked at length as the main focus of the show. As Oliver explains, Donald Trump constantly refers to himself as an expert on the subject, bringing it up as often as he can. It’s led to trade wars with other nations, with Trump putting up more tariffs only to be hit with tariffs in return.
Oliver goes on to explain how Trump doesn’t know how tariffs really work. The president tweeted how, if the trade war never ends, then “we win either way” because the United States will be receiving vast sums of money. But Oliver points out how tariffs are actually paid by the importers in the US, who then pass down the cost onto the consumers. In other words, tariffs will only make the things Americans buy more expensive.
Digging a bit deeper, Oliver uncovers how White House economic adviser Peter Navarro got his job. Apparently, it was as simple as Jared Kushner finding is books on Amazon.com, and next thing you know, Navarro is in the White House. Inspired by an anti-China documentary with Navarro, Oliver makes his own doc in the style of Navarro’s, breaking down trade in a way Trump can hopefully understand
You can watch the entire segment in the YouTube video below.
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Trump watches a lot of television, so hopefully he was able to catch this episode of the show and take a few notes. But that doesn’t seem very likely. For the rest of us, watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver when the show returns on Sep. 9 on HBO. The series can also be streamed on HBO GO and HBO NOW.