The investor who inspired the 2015 movie “The Big Short” said on Tuesday that he believed President Donald Trump could win the tariff wars — if cooler heads prevail.
Steve Eisman made an appearance on CNBC to promote his new podcast, “The Eisman Playbook,” and he weighed in on the market turmoil that followed Trump’s announcement from nearly a week earlier of implementing tariffs around the globe.
WATCH:
Despite the tariff-driven uncertainty causing wild dips in the market, Eisman said that it was all about the politics — and if the political side of things resolved, so too would its reflection in the market. As for the economics experts who have panned the Trump plan, Eisman said the primary reason for that was the fact that he was willing to disrupt the status quo in a way that most presidents had not.
“Everybody of our social class took Econ 101, and we were all taught the same thing: Trade good, tariffs bad, trade war terrible. And that was drummed into everybody’s heads so hard, with such force that it’s a paradigm — now you have a President of the United States who doesn’t seem to accept that paradigm, and people find that extremely jarring,” Eisman said.
“If reasonable heads prevail, Trump will get pretty much what he wants,” Eisman predicted, adding that overall, the United States would likely “suffer the least” impact from the current turmoil.
“If countries were rational, countries like Canada and Mexico would basically be coming to the United States and beg – ‘We’ll do what you want’ – of the 35%, Mexico and Canada have of their GDP from exports, 25 points of that 35 percent is just exports to the United States,” Eisman explained, arguing that those countries were aware of their economic limitations and would most likely respond accordingly. “Those two countries hold no cards. Now, Europe is not much better, and so I think if everyone is rational, they’ll lower their barriers.”
Eisman did offer one caveat, however, saying, “Now that doesn’t mean everybody’s rational. There’s politics, some of the politicians might be afraid if we give in we’re going to lose our jobs, that’s the wild card.”
Eisman concluded by pointing out that, jarring or not, Trump was only doing what he had promised he would do if elected to a second term.
“You can agree with President Trump, or you can disagree with him,” Eisman declared. “He is one of the few politicians in my lifetime who does exactly what he says he’s going to do.”
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[[{“value”:”
The investor who inspired the 2015 movie “The Big Short” said on Tuesday that he believed President Donald Trump could win the tariff wars — if cooler heads prevail.
Steve Eisman made an appearance on CNBC to promote his new podcast, “The Eisman Playbook,” and he weighed in on the market turmoil that followed Trump’s announcement from nearly a week earlier of implementing tariffs around the globe.
WATCH:
Despite the tariff-driven uncertainty causing wild dips in the market, Eisman said that it was all about the politics — and if the political side of things resolved, so too would its reflection in the market. As for the economics experts who have panned the Trump plan, Eisman said the primary reason for that was the fact that he was willing to disrupt the status quo in a way that most presidents had not.
“Everybody of our social class took Econ 101, and we were all taught the same thing: Trade good, tariffs bad, trade war terrible. And that was drummed into everybody’s heads so hard, with such force that it’s a paradigm — now you have a President of the United States who doesn’t seem to accept that paradigm, and people find that extremely jarring,” Eisman said.
“If reasonable heads prevail, Trump will get pretty much what he wants,” Eisman predicted, adding that overall, the United States would likely “suffer the least” impact from the current turmoil.
“If countries were rational, countries like Canada and Mexico would basically be coming to the United States and beg – ‘We’ll do what you want’ – of the 35%, Mexico and Canada have of their GDP from exports, 25 points of that 35 percent is just exports to the United States,” Eisman explained, arguing that those countries were aware of their economic limitations and would most likely respond accordingly. “Those two countries hold no cards. Now, Europe is not much better, and so I think if everyone is rational, they’ll lower their barriers.”
Eisman did offer one caveat, however, saying, “Now that doesn’t mean everybody’s rational. There’s politics, some of the politicians might be afraid if we give in we’re going to lose our jobs, that’s the wild card.”
Eisman concluded by pointing out that, jarring or not, Trump was only doing what he had promised he would do if elected to a second term.
“You can agree with President Trump, or you can disagree with him,” Eisman declared. “He is one of the few politicians in my lifetime who does exactly what he says he’s going to do.”
“}]]
