Trump tells Walmart to ‘eat the tariffs’ as retailer expects prices to increase
By: Auzinea Bacon, CNN
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Donald Trump on Saturday said Walmart needs to stop “trying to blame tariffs” after the retail giant announced its products would become more expensive.
Walmart’s CEO said the price increases were a result of Trump’s tariffs being “too high,” particularly when it came to Chinese goods.
“We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible. But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins,” Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon said Thursday in an earnings call.
Trump responded on Saturday, posting to Truth Social that “Between Walmart and China they should, as is said ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!”
Trump’s comments echoed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s comments Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” arguing that “businesses and the countries primarily eat the tariff.” Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has called such theories “ ludicrous .”
Economists have told CNN that the tariffs will burden lower- and middle-income Americans, who have historically been Walmart’s primary customer base. And consumers often go to the retail giant for non-negotiable purchases, such as groceries.
The changes will likely take effect by the end of May, and prices will increase “much more” in June, Walmart’s finance chief, John David Rainey, told CNBC .
Walmart, which has over 4,600 stores in the United States, gets merchandise from Canada, China, India, Mexico and Vietnam, among other nations. Those countries face at least 10% in tariffs, and imports of steel, aluminum, cars and auto parts face 25% tariffs.
“All of the tariffs create cost pressure for us, but the larger tariffs on China have the biggest impact,” McMillon said.
rump increased tariffs on most Chinese goods to a whopping 145%, but that rate dropped to 30% on Monday as part of a 90-day truce with China. But Trump said the tariffs could become “substantially higher” if a trade agreement with China is not reached.
Other countries are negotiating with the United States amid a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs. Baseline tariffs will not go lower than 10% during negotiations, Lutnick told CNN on Sunday.
Trump’s trade war has sunk consumer sentiment in recent months. The University of Michigan reported that consumer sentiment fell 2.7% between April and May — a near-record low, in part due to Americans fearing a recession.
Here’s what is expected to get more expensive at Walmart.
Food
“Food inflation is very much on our mind,” McMillon said.
Bananas, avocados and coffee are among some of the groceries that McMillon said come from Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru. America also imports beets, cabbage, melons, and pineapples from Costa Rica. Sweet potatoes and citrus are imported from Peru.
Walmart did not say how much prices could increase on fruits and vegetables.
“We’ll do our best to control what we can control in order to keep food prices as low as possible,” McMillon said, suggesting that “controlling the amount of fresh food waste” could help.
Between February and April, the average price of bananas per pound has increased by about 2 cents at US retailers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Seasonal products
Ryan Monarch, assistant professor of economics at Syracuse University, told CNN that seasonal and holiday shopping purchases can’t be delayed for two to three months to wait on the trade war to play out.
Walmart is currently focused on back-to-school shopping, according to McMillon. He explained that tariffs are paid as soon as a product enters the country through customs, meaning the higher tariffs are already affecting shipments.
“So I think what we’re looking at is upward pressure that began in April and plays through the entire year on things that are imported,” McMillon said.
Estimating tariff costs and order quantities could “get more challenging” further down the line when making “decisions related to things like Halloween and Christmas,” he said.
Toys, electronics and baby gear
“China, in particular, represents a lot of volume in certain categories like electronics and toys,” McMillon said.
Roughly 80% of toys sold in the United States are made in China, according to the Toy Association, an industry group.
Toy companies, like Hasbro, the owner of Nerf and Play-doh, said some items will be cut from its portfolio, and Barbie creator Mattel has issued warnings about potential price hikes due to tariffs.
“Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” Trump said earlier this month, acknowledging the potential impact tariffs will have on toys.
here has already been a jump in the price of toys. Product pricing analysis from research firm Telsey Advisory Groups showed that the price of a Barbie doll with a swimsuit sold at Walmart’s competitor Target rose 42.9% over a week in mid-April to $14.99.
Gaming products should also see big price hikes. Initially priced at $450, Nintendo’s Switch 2 could instead cost around $600 , according to experts.
Even an Apple iPhone 17 could cost more than $1,000 instead of $799, according to Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at investment firm Synovus.
Childcare products, such as strollers, clothes, car seats and formula, could also see a price hike. Industry experts estimate that about 90% of children’s and baby gear products are manufactured exclusively in China, and that won’t change anytime soon.
“Customers need those things. Even if they were to raise prices on those products, customers are still going to buy them,” Syracuse University’s Monarch said. “So you might expect products like that to see prices increasing pretty quickly.”
Home goods
In 2024, China sent more than $438 billion worth of goods into American homes. Nearly 19% of that total was machinery and mechanical appliances, according to data from the US International Trade Commission . Meanwhile, 4% of last year’s imports from China were bedding, furniture and lighting.
Rainey, Walmart’s CFO, said general merchandise sales in the United States declined slightly during the first quarter, “with softness in electronics, home products and sporting goods.” Because home goods are not considered necessities like groceries and baby gear, consumers are more likely to hold off on buying them.
“Consumers are very worried, and what they’re doing is they’re delaying their purchases of durable goods — things like cars, things like appliances,” said Monarch.
Monarch added that Walmart was among companies to increase imports before tariffs took effect, allowing them to stock up on products that won’t perish.
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The mad dictator further reveals the depths of his megalomania and insanity.
I wonder how the Walton family, that supported Trump, feels about Trump's comment.
I hope they feel every tire of the bus under which Trump threw them.
... oh yeah, the battle of the billionaires. who does trumpski think owns congress?
walmart should cash in on the 8647 tee-shirt trend ...
Lutnick is depraved.
The lying is getting worse. It is making our peaceful politics unsustainable.
This is only 4 months in. As Trump told us, he's just beginning.
... the beginning of the end for him, and anyone else that thinks he can change the constitution by EO.
It is like handing an unlimited credit card and the car keys to a 10-year-old and telling him that nothing he does while officially driving the car is illegal.
And it's only possible because he convinced those who gave him the card and the keys that everything in this country is already fucked anyway, so why not? "What do you have to lose?" he asked those dimwitted greedy slimy religious conservative fucking morons, and they replied "Nothing!" Because they're just too fucking greedy and Trump convinced them because they don't get there way ALL the time, then they need to hire him. And of course, they're also too fucking stupid to realize what they had and that Trump is never going to actually give them what they want other than leaving all of us with a massive crater where our almost 250-year-old experiment in a democratic constitutional Republic lay dying.
I think MAGAites hired Trump to get conservative 'things done" and they are "shocked and awed" that he is doing just that and at the same time working his own business interests "MAX" across the world. That is, this time around for every CULTURE WAR policy Trump gives MAGAites, he extracts financial value for himself through global positioning of his business ventures. MAGAites are being 'had.' The question is do they see it that way. (I think some of the MAGAites in congress are slowing (like molasses pouring) getting a clear understanding of what is really happening finally.) Bit (too) late, probably.
it won't be empty ...
almost the exact same thing ...
Ooops. There goes that $5K check for birthin' a baby.
by the time that happens, a happy meal will cost $5K ...
Is Trump attempting to 'NATIONALIZE" this company, Walmart, when he tells them how to govern their business. What is the law he is invoking and following to deliver such a message as this?
Taft-Hartley?
nah...that's only used when unions go on strike
In any case, not a peep from the Trump 'lovers' on NT. They say we lie and obsess over Trump. Well, if that is so, can it be that we do so because they won't stop their own madman from interfering in free-market enterprising? MAGAites like to label us, "Socialists believing in socialism." - What do they have to say about Trump who is demanding that the nation's biggest retailer capitulate to his control over their profit-making margins? Nothing! MAGAites on NT write nothing!
President Trump is acting like a "socialist" leader!
not surprising
And we can't voice our opinion about what an evil, amoral, asshole he is without being accused of becoming hysterical.
I read a funny comment this morning....Quote: I don't let people I hate take up space in my head"
They're taking up space if you hate them
Another short quote that is a good mantra for these contentious daze:
“I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him” ~ Booker T. Washington
Here is another quote - I don't have anyone to attribute it to, off the top of my head. I know I heard it from somewhere/someone else:
"How can I forget . . .if . . . won't go away?"
Trump won't stop with his bull-crap imaginings for us all. I see no real use for a president who seems to think we need to hear the thoughts running through his 'empty' head everyday-all day. I like hearing from any president. . . but not his every day 'stinkin-thinkin.'
sounds like a country western music lyric ...
... about an std.
So Trump lied when he said "other countries pay the tariffs", the tariffs will make us rich?
Let's start asking the Trump global organization how they are passing on the increased costs to customers at Trump properties, hotels, restaurants, and golf courses?
It sure looks like Trump finally realized that tariffs are paid by the importing company and passed on to the American consumer.
Yeah, he lied (of course), but the question is when he finally realized that the foreign nation does not pay tariffs.
Regardless, the man is unfit for the office. It is sickening that anyone continues to support him.
Trump has been feigning ignorance all along. Of course, Trump knew that U.S. businesses pay the tariffs on foreign products and pass them on to the public accordingly. Why? BECAUSE THE CEOs would have told any and every president that at every 'stop' along the way; every sit-down meeting they would have with a sitting president!
Trump is not realizing anything; he just got 'called out for it" Walmart fashion. Remember, how Trump 'tamped down' on Amazon placing distinguishing tariff cost labels on a section of their online business? He critically knew what it would do to his "liberation day" if Bezos has followed through with it.
Trump (has always) knows!
Thing is, this idiot campaigned on the idea that tariffs would be used to generate revenue and he has stated several times that the foreign nations would pay the tariffs.
Quite possibly he was just playing (profoundly ignorant) people for suckers. Banking on the idea that tens of millions of voters would not know that he was totally full of shit and just believe him. It is possible.
It is also quite possible that Trump truly did not understand tariffs and since he believes he knows more than anyone else, probably was not interested in doing any research on the topic.
The "ha-ha" is on MAGAites! Oh and by the way, this warning to Walmart to 'eat' tariffs and to beware 'big brother' is watching - is to benefit MAGAites in red-states.
Trump could care less if blue-state Walmart's shelve prices go 'way' up! It simply is not the same to him and he knows how to 'carve out' a niche pricing market from his real estate days (with good ole dad)! That would have been when he was separating "Coloreds" from "Whites" for his properties.
So,
"Attention! Blue-state Walmart shoppers, watch your price mark ups closely and compare to red states markup using available online services!"
Interesting article about who pays for the tariffs indirectly.
In theory a country like communist China could in fact pay the tariff in order to break in to new markets but this is rare.
More commonly, governments follow the US model.
The US government subsidizes big oil and farming and big Pharma and others.
Farmers Got Billions From Taxpayers In 2019, And Hardly Anyone Objected : The Salt : NPR
Trump is both profoundly incompetent and utterly full of himself. He seems to think he is a dictator.
He apparently believes that if he acts as if he is a dictator people will accept it as reality thus allowing him to continue engaging in autocratic conduct.
He might be on to something.
After all, there is no rational explanation for anyone supporting this buffoon at this stage yet they still are and continue to defend his irresponsible and often stupid acts.
There is a reason why Trump likes autocrats around the world and keeps company with them like no other U.S. president would to date: He likes that they have no contest to their will for their countries. Dictators are elites who say jump and the country says "how high." Apparently, dictators have 'welcomed' the U.S. president into the club. Look at how he travels and they lavish riches and luxuries over him!
Do not be fooled. In his foreign visits Trump is being treated like royalty and he is also being COUNSELED as to how to finish removing democracy from this country in those 'quiet hours' when dictator's and would be dictators sit and talk to one another.
Why is Trump so comfortable talking and being in the presence of dictators? Because he could care less how they became a ruler, nor how they treat their people as long as they do like him and do not mistreat him. Thus, they lavish building projects in their country onto him.
Who does not understand that if any dictator, or dictators plural, gives Trump building permits in his country that they OWN the man, the U.S. president, because he will do 'extraordinary' things to keep that building under Trump by following another countries rules and so he will NEED them.
The U.S. president is signing us up to be under his control. . . and, his control over himself will be LIMITED to those who control his wealth from afar.
And STILL, MAGAites, our Media, and our politicians seem clueless as to what is transpiring in the light of 'day.'
I will tell you why the Right-wing Christian evangelicals -at large are following Trump wherever he leads, it is because they do not want anybody like a Christian to lead them, they want a ''pit-bull,' somebody who is not a Christian to lead this country and they can get "things they want done" through him.
That is why White Christians are 'down' with (whatsoever) Trump does. We've not reached the point where they think he has become a liability to their cause. Their cause is to take down liberals, secularists, immigrants and migrants that threaten to 'brown-en' this country's majority, put diversity, equity, inclusion, and 'pack' Others back into their 'boxes' ontop of one another.
Trump does (all) that for them which they can not do for themselves and keep the pretense of clean 'hands.'
Trump says to Walmart's CEO: "Eat the Tariffs." And again: "I'll be watching!" (You eat them.) Does that mean that if Walmart does not eat the tariffs. . . MAGAites will boycott Walmart?
Say it isn't so...
Oh, it's real. All Trump has to do is 'indicate' that he is unhappy and MAGAites will react. Although, I imagine no one ever thought the time would come that a sitting president would lead a boycott of private industry! Or, is he watching Walmart so that he can slap them with a DOJ suit for continuing to manage their profit?
I never thought in all my years that I'd see millions of what I thought were Americans get down and kneel before some man. And I certainly never imagined that if they did, it would be such a monumentally flawed man. It's truly sickening to watch. The desperate debased deplorables groveling and embarrassing themselves for such a total immoral piece of trash acting as if he's some sort of Pharoh or Golden God. Disgusting.
HA!
they've got way too much invested to walk away now, and they'd lose their maga friends ...
I thought he was for business.... HUH????
He needs somebody to blame for the results of his own bad decisions, made either in ignorance, arrogance, or both. Walmart is one of the more visible retailers that will be raising prices, and that puts a target on their backs. Lucky them.
“I think the good parts are the ‘Trump economy’ and the bad parts are the ‘Biden economy’” - Donald J Trump
Trump doesn't care about truth which is made obvious by his sycophants who scream and cheer for any bits of truth he might utter amidst his fountain of verbal diarrhea while also cheering any of his blatant lies as intentional to 'own the libs'. So, if he tells the truth about cutting government funding for shit conservatives hate and turning the EPA into a watchdog to protect corporate America instead of protecting the environment, his sycophants cheer in unison. And if he lies about tariffs and Ukraine and everything else, his sycophants cheer because his lies pissed off the libs.
Apparently, when your supporters are either dumb as rocks, bitter partisans who don't give a fuck about anything other than pissing off people they hate, really religious and believe their religion should be forced on everyone around them or are super racist and believe their chosen leader will usher in a fourth Reich for white conservative Christo fascists, truth just doesn't matter.
he's a dumb ass that can't comprehend the consequences of his actions ...
I doubt he even cares.