One of President Donald Trump’s top Democratic foes found a fresh opportunity to mock him—this time, over his masculinity.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, 61, hit the president over his petty reason for hiking tariffs on a long-standing European ally.
In an interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that aired on Tuesday, Trump revealed that he decided to impose higher tariffs on Switzerland because he didn’t like the tone of its female leader in a phone call.
“I put on a 30 percent tariff, which is very low. Still, we were having a big deficit, but it was half the deficit. Then I got an emergency call from, I believe, the prime minister of Switzerland, and she was very aggressive—but nice—but very aggressive,” he said.
Trump didn’t identify the leader but appeared to confuse the president of the Swiss Confederation at the time with a prime minister, which Switzerland does not have. Karin Keller-Sutter, 62, served as Swiss Confederation president last year, when the Trump administration first rolled out its sky-high tariffs.
“‘We are a small country. We can’t do this. We can’t do this,’” Trump said, mimicking Keller-Sutter. “I couldn’t get her off the phone. ‘We are a small country.’ I said, ‘You may be a small country, but we have a $42 billion deficit with you. ‘No, no, we are a small country.’ Again and again and again. I couldn’t get her off the phone, so it was a 30 percent and I didn’t really like the way she talked to us, and so instead of giving her a reduction, I raised it to 39 percent.”
Pritzker called out Trump over the remarks.
“The Art of Fragile Masculinity,” he wrote in an X post, responding to a clip of the Fox Business interview.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Pritzker’s post.
It wasn’t the first time that Trump had spoken publicly about his tariff talks with Keller-Sutter. Last month, Trump told powerful political and business leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he had personal motivations for raising tariffs on Switzerland.
“And she was very repetitive,” he said in his speech, recalling his conversation with Keller-Sutter. “She said, ‘No, no, no, you cannot do that, 30 percent. You cannot do that. We are a small, small country.’”
“I said, ‘But you’re a big country in terms of’ — and she just rubbed me the wrong way, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump continued.
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