Trump tells Walmart to 'eat the tariffs' instead of raising prices
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Walmart (WMT.N) should "eat the tariffs" instead of blaming duties imposed on imported goods for the retailer's increase prices.
His comments were in response to the world's largest retailer saying this week that it would have to start raising prices later this month due to high cost of tariffs.
"Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, 'EAT THE TARIFFS,' and not charge valued customers ANYTHING."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-tells-walmart-eat-tariffs-instead-raising-prices-2025-05-17/
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Eugene
(65,106 posts)Eugene
(65,106 posts)
EX500rider
(11,830 posts)
dweller
(26,590 posts)The 86/47 merch appears at Wally world … it’s selling well at Amazon
🤔
✌🏻
Wonder Why
(5,754 posts)
NJCher
(40,121 posts)The guy who lost more money than anyone else in the United States has some business advice for you.
Here are some relevant facts from his spectacular (not) business career, according to the IRS and as reported by the NY Times:
snip
The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings. They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade.
In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found when it compared his results with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners. His core business losses in 1990 and 1991 — more than $250 million each year — were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.
snip
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/07/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html
how this ignorant bully continued to grift and grind till Apprentice resurrected him. He is now example for ignorant bullies everywhere that there is hope.
markodochartaigh
(2,900 posts)have spent an incredible amount to keep him afloat! And, even more amazingly, their investment paid off! Bigly!
groundloop
(12,936 posts)How else is it possible for a casino to 'lose' money, where customers are literally walking through the door and handing you money.
J_William_Ryan
(2,740 posts)If Trump is worried about price increases, he needs to scrap his meritless, idiotic tariff scheme.
Traildogbob
(11,219 posts)Needs to eat. A full bag of em. Big ole black ones.
DENVERPOPS
(12,253 posts)that Walmart would say nothing..........the reason being, that I can only imagine that their customers, especially in Rural America are a large percentage of their customer base......
Same with Home Depot, and many many other large Corporate businesses........
Coolgoober
(93 posts)I guess nobody is supposed to make money except Trump. Sounds like the companies shouldn't even make a profit. They should all operate at a loss, all to make dear Leader look like the greatest deal maker the world has ever seen. What a F*#king Clown.
sheshe2
(92,094 posts)"Between
MuseRider
(34,659 posts)Bwahahahahaha. What a maroon.
Gimme a bucket.
Norrrm
(1,614 posts)erronis
(19,787 posts)I'm sure the US and Allied troops knew what it was when they were fighting the Nazis.
taxi
(2,249 posts)The maga crowd doesn't care where it's made or sold anymore than they care what the price is. Walmart can offset increased costs with maga merch alone.
erronis
(19,787 posts)All the failed trmp merch can have special price hikes and a special warehouse for just the certified magadiots.
taxi
(2,249 posts)The text is:
So small
(insert graphic)
Not a king at all
Graphic options include depiction of his meme coin, his phony pope photo, on his knees before Saudis, black and white Halloween costume that he wore to visit the Queen,,,
twodogsbarking
(13,722 posts)
no_hypocrisy
(51,619 posts)Midnight Writer
(23,999 posts)We could drop the across-the-board tariff stuff that screws our economy and screws our alliances, why not just tax people and businesses on a portion of their income.? That we, we can easily adjust the tax rate to fit our needs and adjust the tax level to insure fairness.
This is such a keen idea, Sir, you may just win a Nobel Prize!
republianmushroom
(19,931 posts)Don't listen to them base, listen to me your golden leader.
riversedge
(75,598 posts)I am sure trumpy will listen to me.
vapor2
(2,387 posts)pandr32
(13,009 posts)Why should we?
Brainfodder
(7,318 posts)Meanwhile on Earth actual, he thinks there is 30% to disappear so easily?
Journeyman
(15,328 posts)Trump, Walmart, the Chinese, and everyone who does (or must) shop for their necessities and superfluities.
Ah, how does it feel? Dylan wrote, to be invisible now, with no secrets to conceal, on your own, a complete unknown, just a rolling stone with a silly name, a synonym for flatulence.
Pretty soon, people gonna shit all over Tangerine Shitler.
lark
(25,037 posts)He wants them to just shop and never notice the 30% hike - what an stupid elitist fool he is!! Let the poor eat dirt while the rich feast on the money they've stolen from the poor and working classes is his hidden agenda.
Marthe48
(20,655 posts)I don't shop at wm, but I cut thru their lot to get to Aldi's. I noticed today that the parking lot lines and arrows are so faded they are almost invisible.
I think wm is too busy eating their profit to reinvest anything in the stores. I would probably go into shock if a single American business ate the traitor tariffs.
DingleBerryNW
(50 posts)
IronLionZion
(48,889 posts)because nobody told him how tariffs work? Tariffs are meant to increase prices on imports to encourage customers to buy domestic products instead. The problem is everything is imported or made of imported materials and parts.
He's telling an American corporation to voluntarily take less profit because he's a super genius like that.
MAGAts love Walmart.
SpankMe
(3,472 posts)Can you imagine if Biden or Obama did something dictatorial in nature that raised prices, and then told businesses to "eat it" instead of raising prices? Can you imagine the lobbying onslaught that would follow and how Democratic officeholders would suffer?
Why is that not happening now?
damifino10
(96 posts)TAXES. Pure and simple attempt to put a national sales tax on the backs of the majority of the folks.
A work around, or a back door method to milk the American public.
Biophilic
(5,644 posts)Walmart made huge profits last year under President Biden’s economy. Looks like your economy ain’t so great after all.
kimbutgar
(25,128 posts)I hope his comments catch up to him sooner rather than later. His comments are getting even more deranged, insane and evil. Like he could give a shit about the American people only himself! 
Klarkashton
(3,366 posts)The tariffs. He repeated this claim over and over for years.
Gimpyknee
(138 posts)DENVERPOPS
(12,253 posts)Despite Trump's Bull Shit rhetoric .......they aren't gonna eat the tariffs, Anymore than as he claims the countries are all talking to him daily about making a deal.............I mean really, when would he even have the time to talk to ONE country with him sleeping til noon, playing golf all afternoon, hosting dinners at ludicrous prices, and then snorting crushed Adderall and texting most of the night....
It is not enough that Trump is a delusional psychotic, but he has brainwashed 74 Million Voters, mostly with FOX's help......
Now they are all as delusional as he is...........
allegorical oracle
(4,957 posts)Bartiromo) has pointed out how tariffs would be a TAX on consumers -- tariffs would be PASSED ON to customers?
And now can those voters hear their man-baby hero yelling at businesses for passing on those tax/tariffs to customers?
Are drumpsters even capable of recognizing how they're repeatedly being gas-lighted by the fetid fathead?
Evolve Dammit
(20,647 posts)
angrychair
(10,633 posts)Fascism is very much about controlling free enterprise.
Telling companies to eat taxes is price controlling.
Telling companies they have to purge DEI principals from their company before a merger is allowed to proceed, is fascism (Verizon purchase of Frontier).
Government picking winners and losers depending on how favored you are with the government, is fascism (state Dept opening pushing countries to purchase services from eLoon's companies) is fascism.
No one can continue to deny that this is a fascist dictatorship. Congress is a spineless rubber stamp. Secret police barge into businesses and homes and drag people out of their cars, in broad daylight, in masks, no ID, no warrant and complete disregard for civil rights.
They are trying to either control or bankrupt universities that don't let them control their curriculum and hiring practices.
They are firing generals and other officers and banning books and resources to the military and demanding obedience to the Mango Mussolini, not to the Constitution.
The judicial branch will be the last to fall and when it does there will be nothing to slow their efforts or question their decisions.
The American empire is in full collapse.
Reference: https://www.econlib.org/similarity-between-socialism-and-fascism-an-illustration/
DENVERPOPS
(12,253 posts)and well presented..........
I have always felt that the simplest definition of FASCISM is the merger of Corporations and Business....
I would have to read a lot more to change my mind, that most citizens in the U.S. haven't even begun to
realize how much of their lives are either directly or indirectly controlled by the U.S. Corporations.......
Examples would be the amount of money the Corporations flooded into the Republican Politicians in the election, or the entire Medical Industry and Pharmaceutical industry, etc etc etc.
The Republican Corporations LOATHE FDR and the large amount of regulatory agencies he formed.....The same regulatory agencies now being emasculated or destroyed by the Republican Politicians...
live love laugh
(15,339 posts)
Grammy23
(5,995 posts)He needs to lead by example if he expects others to follow his recommendations. So have it, Chubs!
JoseBalow
(7,509 posts)
c-rational
(3,040 posts)c-rational
(3,040 posts)lastlib
(25,942 posts)WalMart to tRump: "Eat Shit."
America: "And Die. Soon."
Norrrm
(1,614 posts)Have they brought their manufacturing back to America?
KPN
(16,623 posts)Love it!
LiberalArkie
(18,264 posts)
gay texan
(2,991 posts)I wouldn't be surprised if they start calling in favors
twodogsbarking
(13,722 posts)
marble falls
(65,509 posts)... is: they've forced customers to change and degrade product and to manufacture off shores.
Rubbermaid is a classic example. Destroyed the company and it's reputation.
Hotler
(13,110 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(163,402 posts)If China is really paying these tariffs, why should Walmart have to "eat" these tariffs. trump has lied about how tariffs work and that lie is being exposed
Link to tweet
Karasu
(1,189 posts)Tarzanrock
(870 posts)This is about to get real ugly in Republican Nazi Party circles. I may be wrong but I'm pretty certaint that super-rich billionaires like the various members of old Sam Walton's family who each gave the Turd several hundred millions dollars to the Turd's PACs and the members of the Tyson chicken processing family who likewise donated to the Turd -- these people are not going like being told to "EAT THE TARIFFS!"
Blue Owl
(56,248 posts)Fuck hum.
8647
LudwigPastorius
(12,476 posts)
love_katz
(3,061 posts)I hope they tell tRump what he can eat. 
Hint: it starts with a d and rhymes with kicks.
cstanleytech
(27,608 posts)
Martin68
(25,776 posts)the whole game away? Maybe he depends on the stupidity of his supporters to miss the point. Or at this point he doesn't care. He's either going to end up a dictator for life or a failed politician with a hundred lawsuits against him.
Marcuse
(8,424 posts)
Sneederbunk
(16,179 posts)oasis
(52,302 posts) LetMyPeopleVote
(163,402 posts)If Trump were right about foreign countries paying tariffs, why is he demanding that Walmart simply “eat the tariffs”? Because he’s wrong about the basics.
By trying to bully Walmart, Trump gives away the game on his tariffs agenda - MSNBC
— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2025-05-19T13:52:23.601Z
apple.news/ABKcQqIWIS7y...
Link to tweet
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trying-bully-walmart-trump-gives-away-game-tariffs-agenda-rcna207634
As The Washington Post reported, the president did not take the news well.
President Donald Trump over the weekend admonished Walmart for warning that his tariffs could force a price increase, urging the world’s biggest retailer to simply absorb the consequences of his trade war. ... The president responded Saturday, posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Walmart should ‘EAT THE TARIFFS’ and ‘not charge valued customers ANYTHING.’
......When it comes to the president’s approach to the issue, he has repeatedly pushed a simple claim: Foreign counties pay the tariffs. That’s never made any sense, and everyone who’s ever taken an Economics 101 course has tried to explain how absurd this belief is, but Trump — whose capacity for confusion about the basics of trade policy is endless — has nevertheless clung to the assertion, telling the public that tariffs on China, for example, lead Beijing to put money in American coffers. That’s long been absurd, but the Republican has long been impervious to the policy details.
Trump’s latest online statement, however, gives away the game: He apparently now realizes, at least on some level, that his tariffs are responsible for pushing Walmart’s costs higher, and the retailer now intends to push its prices higher as a result.
The president wants Walmart to simply “eat the tariffs” — meaning, Trump wants the company to profit less in order to accommodate the tariff-related costs. Time will tell whether Walmart follows the White House’s lead......
But again, the dust-up itself served as a reminder to Trump that it’s American businesses and American consumers that feel the pinch from his tariffs.
It was against this backdrop that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on the Senate floor in late April, calling on companies to do what Amazon was prepared to do. “To the large businesses that sell to consumers, I say: Show your customers how much tariffs are hurting in their pocketbooks,” the New York Democrat said. “People deserve to know the impact tariffs have on their finances. ... And it’s also small businesses: They don’t want to get blamed for hiking prices when Donald Trump’s tariffs have put them in a terrible position — in a position that says, raise your prices of close your doors. They hate doing either.”
A week later, congressional Democrats introduced legislation to codify this idea into law, unveiling a bill that would require retailers to display costs that reflect Trump-imposed increases. Although the legislation will never be seriously considered in a Republican-led Congress, the effort itself should be part of an educational campaign for the president, which seems to be working, slowly but surely.