Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blasted currency devaluations around the world for hurting the US economy and costing American jobs, and defended his calls for a tougher US
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blasted currency devaluations around the world for hurting the US economy and costing American jobs, and defended his calls for a tougher US stance on trade.
Asked about the European Central Bank’s decision on Thursday to cut interest rates, Mr Trump told CNBC that such devaluations were driving manufacturing and other jobs outside of the United States. “We just sit back and do nothing,” Mr Trump said. “That’s getting to be very dangerous as far as I’m concerned.”
A more effective economic move than devaluations would be charging a tax on products made abroad and sold in the United States, particularly those from China, Mr Trump said.
“China is the grand master of all,” Mr Trump said. “I have great relationships and business relationships with China, and even those people say they can’t believe what they’re getting away with.”
Additionally, he said that while he supports free trade if it is “fair,” the United States has been taken advantage of in negotiations.
Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sparred over immigration at a debate on Wednesday night, days ahead of a crucial nominating contest in Florida, but directed their strongest fire on Mr Trump.
Ms Clinton and Mr Sanders, competing for Hispanic votes in a state where about one-fourth of the population is Latino, promised to deport only illegal immigrants with criminal records and not to deport children.
In the event hosted by Spanish-language network Univision, they took turns repeatedly ripping into Mr Trump for his remarks about Mexicans and his pledge to deport all illegal immigrants living in the United States.
Mr Sanders. “I would hope very much that as we have that debate, we do not, as Donald Trump and others have done, resort to racism and xenophobia and bigotry. His idea of suddenly one day rounding up 11 million people and taking them outside of this country is a vulgar, absurd idea that I would hope very few people in America support.”
Despite verbal attacks from both the Democrats and the Republicans, Mr Trump is maintaining his national lead and is way ahead of his party rivals in the crucial Florida state, according to the latest polls. Fox News said on Wednesday that Mr Trump was leading in Florida with 43 per cent support, followed by Marco Rubio with a distant 20 per cent.
