Multi-millionaire Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes, appeared on Fox News to discuss President Donald Trump‘s tariff policies and his directive to Walmart to “STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices.”
On his Truth Social, the President of the United States wrote “Between China and Walmart they should, as is said, “EAT THE TARIFFS,” and not charge valued customers ANYTHING.”
Note: Forbes, who was a candidate in the 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential primaries, supported Trump in the 2016 election.
When Stuart Varney on Fox News told Forbes, “Trump warned Walmart to ‘eat the tariffs,’ as he put it, that sounds to me like price controls, is it?,” Forbes replied: “It is. And the key word that the Secretary of the Treasury put out there was ‘some’ of the tariffs will be, they’ll absorb, i.e., they’ll have to pass them on, as any business would.”
Price controls — “restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market” — have been criticized often by economists.
Milton Friedman once said: “We economists don’t know much, but we do know how to create a shortage. If you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, for example, just pass a law that retailers can’t sell tomatoes for more than two cents per pound. Instantly you’ll have a tomato shortage. It’s the same with oil or gas.”
Fox Host: Trump warned Walmart to 'eat the tariffs,' that sounds to me like price controls, is it?
— FactPost (@factpostnews) May 19, 2025
Fox Guest: It is. Tariff is a sales tax. It's weighing on prices. When Christmas comes around and you can't get that doll, that may not be much concern in Washington, but it is a… pic.twitter.com/JRfWFHRFON
Forbes added: “Tariff is a sales tax…it is weighing on decisions, weighing on prices, and by golly when Christmas comes around and you can’t get the doll, that may not be much concern in Washington, but it is a concern to people seeing that empty Christmas tree.”
Earlier this month, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz told CNBC he does not foresee toy manufacturing coming to America. Instead, the toy company expects to raise prices in the U.S. to offset Trump’s 145% tariff on Chinese imports — or whatever the figure is after the recently announced pause.
Kreiz also noted that the company has been diversifying its global manufacturing with the goal of reducing its dependence on China, and that by the end of the year, less than 40% of Mattel’s product will be sourced from the country.
.jpg){kind=link}