Donald Trump is not worried about tourists turning their backs on the United States en masse after the high-profile detention of some visitors and imposition of global tariffs.
The president was quizzed by a reporter in the Oval Office as to why he thought visitor numbers were falling, but appeared to shrug off the issue.
“There is a little nationalism there, I guess, perhaps. It is not a big deal,” he said on Wednesday. He then went off on a tangent about the dollar, selling tractors, and his friendship with assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Data from the International Trade Administration shows a worrying trend, however. While Americans continue to jet off in their droves, the number of visitors touching down on U.S. soil has fallen considerably.
The number of foreign visitors flying into the U.S. fell by almost 10 percent in March compared with the same period last year, the agency reports. The figure is down nearly 13 percent from before the pandemic, to 4.54 million people.
Trump, however, appears unmoved. He concluded in his Oval Office press conference: “It makes it very hard for us to get tourism, and our dollar is a little bit on the low side and that means that a lot of tourism is going to come in.
“But I can see a little bit of nationalism at work, and I can see it likewise with us—not wanting to go to certain countries. But that’ll work out very easily.”
JPMorgan said the real cost is an erosion of 0.1 percent from gross domestic product. A spokesman blamed Trump’s tariffs primarily and added: “Concerns around detentions of foreign visitors, sometimes by accident, are only compounding this effect.”
The GDP of the U.S. in 2024 was projected to be around $29 trillion, so a 0.1 percent chunk would equate to $29 billion in lost economic activity.
Asked if he thinks that tourists might be scared to visit due to incidents of travelers being detained, Trump shrugged that off too.
“No, we treat our tourists great. We are the tourism capital of the world. There’s no place like this and there may be a little bit of nationalism, but I doubt it,” he said.
His comments come after two German backpackers were detained in Hawaii after immigration officials decided it was suspicious they had not booked a hotel room before arriving.
Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, arrived in Honolulu from Auckland, New Zealand, earlier this month while on a round-the-world trip. But, despite having ESTA travel authorization, immigration officials accused them of attempting to enter the U.S. to work illegally, and they were deported after being strip-searched.
“We had already noticed a little bit about what was going on in the U.S. But at the time, we didn’t think it was happening to Germans. That was perhaps very naive. We felt so small and powerless,” Maria told German outlet Ostsee Zeitung of their ordeal.
This is not an isolated incident. Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney was held by ICE for 12 days after she arrived, legally, in the U.S. for work.
German tourist Lucas Sielaff was driving from Mexico with his American fiancée when he was scooped up by immigration goons and held for 16 days.
Trump’s on-again off-again global tariff war has also hit relations with other countries and driven home the isolationist ‘America First’ policy that might make tourists think twice about visiting.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s attempt to quell any fears on April 4 might have missed the mark, too.
“If you’re not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest, or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is, or … stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our streets and vandalise our universities, then you have nothing to worry about,” he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly made a better attempt on Wednesday, telling CNBC: “President Trump’s agenda to make America wealthy, safe, and beautiful again benefits Americans and international visitors alike.”
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