Donald Trump compared the United States to a “Third World country” and complained that grocery, jewelry and hardware stores were missing all items during an interview Tuesday night.
The former president appeared on Just The News, a program on right-wing broadcaster Real America’s Voice, where he was asked what he would “triage” among the multiple crises plaguing the country if he ran for office and won in 2024 .
“These things – which we would never have talked about – I’ll give you an example. supply chain,” Trump began.
“You go to a shop, you have no bread. We are like a third world country. You don’t have any stuff. You go to buy something at Tiffany’s, you go to buy something at a hardware store – high, low – they don’t have product.’
“Tiffany” is likely Tiffany & Co., a jewelry retailer who briefly rented premises in a Trump Organization building in New York City in 2018, despite attacking the former president for pulling the US out of the Paris climate accord the year before would have.
“They say — even me, when I order things like furniture, for a building or something — they say it’s going to be nine months before I get it,” Trump said. “It used to be like that, same-day service.”
He continued: “Supply chain – we’ve never heard the term. It wasn’t like the system worked.’
Under President Joe Biden, Trump said, “The system is completely broken.”
“Our system is broken, and we’re going to socialism, and we’re going to communism,” Trump continued.
Trump said Americans never heard the term “supply chain” when he was president and complained that the “system under Joe Biden was completely broken.”
He went on to say he would solve the southern border refugee crisis, and then “inflation what we can do”.
Biden earlier this week unveiled a $5.8 trillion fiscal 2023 budget proposal that includes hundreds of millions of dollars aimed at removing supply chain bottlenecks that have paralyzed the world’s movement of goods for months.
This 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 resulted in labor shortages, abrupt shifts in demand and lockdowns, all wreaking havoc on supply chains.
A recent wave of pandemics in China and the strict health protocols that have followed have slowed the flow of goods through the world’s second largest economy.
This, combined with the latest data showing that the cost of consumer goods rose 7.9 percent year-on-year, has strained the wallets of millions of Americans.
Gasoline prices 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 that the more than 30-day conflict could lead to the bread shortages Trump warned about in his Tuesday interview.
A grocery store in Virginia is seen with empty shelves in January 2022. Wave after wave of COVID-19 infections has thrown the global supply chain into months of chaos
Empty shelves at a Walmart in New York January 17, 2022. Economists fear Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could further disrupt the food supply chain
According to Forbes, Russia and Ukraine together account for 29 percent of the global wheat market. That means Moscow’s war could reduce the supply of bread, pasta, cereal and beer and make what’s available more expensive.
During his interview, Trump reiterated the claim that Putin’s invasion “never” would have happened had he been in office.
He also claimed that “during his tenure in the White House, you haven’t even heard of Ukraine,” despite an infamous phone call with the nation’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy being the focus of his first impeachment trial.
Trump said “most people didn’t think” that Putin would invade Ukraine and blamed his leaving the White House for the autocrat’s order to go in after months of amassing troops on Ukraine’s border.
“All of a sudden I’m outside and they started to form up at the border. And I actually thought it was a negotiation trick. I thought that was very smart because I said, “That’s a good way to negotiate.” But it wasn’t,” said the ex-president.
“And I think if Putin had to do it all over again, maybe he would have done everything the same way, but he wouldn’t have gone in.”
Part of Trump’s sit-down, released Tuesday morning, sparked outrage from critics after he publicly urged Putin to smear Hunter Biden’s alleged dealings with a Russian oligarch.
Inflation in the United States hit a new 40-year high of 7.9% in February – another grim sign for consumers
The ex-president said he was particularly interested in an alleged $3.5 million payment by the widow of the former Moscow mayor to a company co-founded by Hunter Biden.
“Why did the Moscow Mayor’s wife give the Bidens – both of them – $3.5 million? That’s a lot of money,” Trump said in a 30-second clip on the Voice of America program.
“She gave him $3.5 million. So now I would think that Putin knows 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 under an “advisory agreement.”
GOP lawmakers said the company that received Baturina’s money was co-founded by Hunter Biden. However, an attorney for the president’s son previously claimed he never received the funds and had no stake in the company.
Hunter Biden is a co-founder of Rosemont Seneca Advisors, and it’s not clear if and what kind of connection the two companies have.
Widow Yelena Baturina and daughter Yelena Luzhkova after a farewell ceremony for Yuri Luzhkov, who served as Moscow Mayor from 1992-2010, at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior
The Russian oligarch’s payment was reportedly made when Hunter’s father was vice president.
Trump also criticized the mainstream media and Democrats for dismissing a laptop hard drive allegedly belonging to the president’s son as “Russian disinformation” when the New York Post first reported it in October 2020.
The hard drive contains a huge tranche of correspondence between Hunter Biden and various business partners, as well as suggestive images of sexual acts and drug use.
Republicans were outraged earlier this month when the New York Times claimed it authenticated the computer’s contents many months after the Post and .
“Putin must have thought we were crazy at the time, the whole thing,” Trump said.
“We made him look good because if it was done by Russia, it was so brilliant. but it was not made by Russia.’