Donald Trump compared the United States to a ‘third world country,’ complaining that grocery, jewelry and hardware stores were all missing items during a Tuesday evening interview.
The former president appeared on Just The News, a show on right-wing network Real America’s Voice, where he was asked about what he would ‘triage’ among the multiple crises plaguing the country if he were to run for office and win in 2024.
‘These things — we would’ve never been talking about — I’ll give you an example. Supply chain,’ Trump began.
‘You go to a store, you don’t have bread. We’re like a third world country. They don’t have things. You go to buy something at Tiffany, you go to buy something at a hardware store — high, low — they don’t have product.’
‘Tiffany’ is likely Tiffany & Co., a jewelry retailer that briefly leased space at a Trump Organization building in New York City in 2018 despite attacking the former president for pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement the year before.
‘They say — even me, when I order things, like for furnishings, for a building or something — they say it’s going to take nine months to get it,’ Trump said. ‘Used to be like, same day service.’
He continued, ‘Supply chain — we never even heard the term. It wasn’t like, the system was working.’
Under President Joe Biden, Trump said, ‘the system is totally broken.’
‘Our system is broken, and we’re going into socialism, and we’re going into communism,’ Trump continued.
Trump said Americans ‘never even heard the term’ supply chain when he was president, complaining that the ‘system is totally broken’ under Joe Biden
He went on to say he’d solve the migrant crisis at the southern border, and then ‘inflation, which we can do.’
Biden unveiled a $5.8 trillion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2023 earlier this week, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars aimed at easing supply chain bottlenecks that have paralyzed the global transport of goods for months.
That includes a $125 million boost aimed at making small and medium-sized domestic manufacturers more competitive in the market.
Wave after wave of COVID-19 infections have brought on labor shortages, abrupt shifts in demand and lockdowns that have all wreaked havoc on supply chains.
A recent pandemic surge in China and subsequent strict health protocols have slowed the flow of goods through the world’s second-largest economy.
That, compounded with the most recent data showing the cost of consumer goods rising 7.9 percent over the year prior, has strained the pocketbooks of millions of every day Americans.
Prices at the pump have also skyrocketed in the US and Europe, after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an unprovoked and brutal invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Economists also fear the conflict, which has lasted more than 30 days, could bring about the bread shortage Trump warned of in his Tuesday interview.
A Virginia grocery store is seen in January 2022 with bare shelves. Wave after wave of COVID-19 infections have plunged the global supply chain into months-long chaos
Empty shelves at a Walmart in New York on January 17, 2022. Economists fear Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could further throw the food supply chain into disarray
Russia and Ukraine combined make up 29 percent of the world’s wheat market, according to Forbes. That means Moscow’s war could reduce the supply of breads, pasta, cereals and beer as well as making what is available more expensive.
During his interview Trump repeated the claim that Putin’s invasion would have ‘never’ happened if he were still in office.
He also claimed ‘you didn’t even hear about Ukraine’ during his tenure in the White House, despite an infamous phone call with the nation’s President Volodymyr Zelensky being at the center of his first impeachment trial.
Trump said ‘most people didn’t think’ Putin would invade Ukraine, and blamed his leaving the White House for the autocrat’s order to go in after amassing troops at Ukraine’s border for months.
‘All of a sudden I’m out and they started forming on the border. And I actually thought it was a negotiating ploy. I thought it was very smart because I said, “That’s a good way to negotiate.” But it wasn’t,’ the ex-president said.
‘And I think if Putin had to do it again he would have maybe done everything the same but he wouldn’t have gone in.’
Part of Trump’s sit-down released on Tuesday morning sparked outrage from critics, after he publicly urged Putin to find dirt on Hunter Biden’s alleged dealings with a Russian oligarch.
Inflation in the United States reached a new 40-year high of 7.9% in February in another grim signal for consumers
The ex-president said he was particularly interested in an alleged $3.5 million payment from the former mayor of Moscow’s widow to a company co-founded by Hunter Biden.
‘Why did the mayor of Moscow’s wife give the Bidens — both of them — $3.5 million? That’s a lot of money,’ Trump in a 30-second clip on the Voice of America program.
‘She gave him $3.5 million. So now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it. I think we should know that answer.’
Trump was referring to a 2020 report by Senate Republicans that claimed Yelena Baturina, one of Russia’s billionaire oligarchs, gave the hefty sum to a company called Rosemont Seneca Thorton as part of a ‘consultancy agreement.’
GOP lawmakers said the firm which received Baturina’s money was co-founded by Hunter Biden. But an attorney for the president’s son previously claimed he never received the funds and was not involved in the company.
Hunter Biden is the co-founder of Rosemont Seneca Advisors, and it’s not clear what if any connection the two companies share.
Widow Yelena Baturina and daughter Yelena Luzhkova after a farewell ceremony for Yuri Luzhkov, who served as mayor of Moscow in 1992-2010, at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
The Russian oligarch’s payment was reportedly made while Hunter’s father was vice president.
Trump also slammed the mainstream media and Democrats for dismissing a laptop hard drive that purportedly belonged to the president’s son as ‘Russian disinformation’ when it was first reported on by the New York Post in October 2020.
The hard drive contains a vast tranche of correspondences between Hunter Biden and various business partners, as well as lewd images of sex acts and drug use.
Republicans were outraged earlier this month when the New York Times claimed to have authenticated the contents of the computer many months after the Post and DailyMail.com did the same.
‘Putin at that time must’ve thought we were nuts, the whole thing,’ Trump said.
‘We made him look good because if it was done by Russia, it was so genius. but it wasn’t done by Russia.’
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