‘Not a tax on the American people’: Grant Cardone blasts Mark Cuban for opposing Trump's 200% tariff — says he must be vying for a position in Kamala Harris's administration

‘Pricing will be fair again’

Cardone didn't hold back in his criticism of Cuban.

“Hey Mark, I used to think that you were trolling X, and now I realize you must be vying for some kind of position in the Kamala Harris administration,” Cardone remarked.

Cardone’s comment may not be entirely off-base. Cuban has publicly endorsed Harris for president and even expressed interest in joining her administration to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. “I told her team, look, put my name in for the SEC. It needs to change,” he said in a recent interview with CNBC.

Cardone went on to dismantle Cuban’s argument against the tariff, stating, “Your idea that a tariff is inflationary and it should scare the American people — it's ridiculous.”

Using products made in China as an example, Cardone argued, “You put a 200% tax on any toy, for instance, coming out of China, and the American people will simply quit buying that toy, until at which point America will start manufacturing that car, that toy, the car, whatever it is, the parts, America will start manufacturing — because pricing will be fair again.”

He emphasized that supply and demand ultimately determine prices. Cardone believes that once domestic production ramps up, it will spark “tremendous innovation” in the U.S. economy. Despite higher labor costs in the U.S., he’s confident that Americans will still be able to produce goods more cheaply than China. He argued that Americans will find “smarter, faster, better ways to do things once the tariffs are in place.”

Cardone’s conclusion was clear: “This is not a tax on the American people; it’s a tax on China.”

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A double-edged sword

Economists generally view tariffs as a double-edged sword. While they can protect domestic industries by making imported goods more expensive, they often come with unintended consequences. Higher tariffs may lead to increased costs for consumers, as companies pass on the added expenses. This can result in inflationary pressures and reduced purchasing power for households.

Peter Orazem, an economics professor at Iowa State University, highlighted this issue.

“Making parts more expensive for John Deere is not gonna help John Deere either and it probably would not help jobs in the United States. So, I think some of this isn’t perfectly well thought out,” he explained. Orazem noted that higher tariffs not only raise the cost of imported components but also inflate the price of the final product. “So the consumer loses and the company loses,” he added.

Tariffs can also trigger retaliatory measures from other countries, leading to trade wars that disrupt global supply chains and hinder economic growth.

Ian Sheldon, a professor and Andersons chair of agricultural marketing, trade and policy at Ohio State University, echoed these concerns.

“We have this integrated market in North America, and we're already in a trade dispute with Mexico over genetically modified corn. It seems counterproductive to me to potentially exacerbate trade relations with one of our large trading partners. It doesn't make any sense to me,” he told Business Insider.