Kevin O’Leary, one of the “sharks” on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” said he thinks too many people are hung up on their hatred of President Donald Trump and not focusing on the effectiveness of his policies, calling on Americans to get over their “Trump derangement syndrome” and to “get stuff done.”
“I do business all around the world, in the Middle East and in Europe, 50% of the people in the world have Trump derangement syndrome. And they still have a really hard time understanding why he’s back in the White House,” he said Tuesday on CNN News Central.
“It doesn’t matter. He’s in the White House. We have to deal with the policy, not Trump, but policy. Let’s forget about the fact that he’s in the White House. There’s nothing you can do about it,” the Canadian businessman continued. “Let’s get over the derangement syndrome. Let’s focus on the policy and get stuff done.”
O’Leary is hopeful that Trump will “get this policy right” and backs the president’s tariffs against China.
“I’m an example of someone who’s really been screwed by the Chinese in I.P. theft and I’m kind of done with it,” he said. “So, I’m very happy that some administration, this one particularly, is taking them on to resolve this problem once and for all. And Xi needs the U.S. and the U.S. needs Xi. So, let’s get this thing resolved. I’m OK with the volatility.”
“If he gets this policy right and circles the wagons with the Europeans, the Mexicans and the Canadians, that’s a more powerful charge against China,” O’Leary continued.
The SoftKey founder also disputed that the U.S. is in a recession because of economic chaos created by Trump’s tariffs. “Let me just say that we’ve been talking about recession now for four years in a row, you may recall. Forecasters of recessions have been wrong for four years straight. So, probabilities of 32–55%, that’s interesting, but we are not in a recession right now,” he told host John Berman.
Earlier this month, O’Leary said that Trump’s actions against China were not enough called for a 400% tariff on the nation.
“I’m advocating 400%,” he said. “I do business in China. They don’t play by the rules. They’ve been in the WTO for decades. They have never abided by any of the rules they agreed to when they came in, for decades. They cheat, they steal, they steal IP, I can’t litigate in their courts. They take product technology, they steal it, they manufacture it and sell it back here.”
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