Trump-supporting Business Owner Begs President On Cnn: ‘tell Us The Plan’

The owner of a clothing store in Southern California implored President Donald Trump to “tell us the plan” when it comes to the sweeping tariffs on imports.

Steven Borrelli, the founder and CEO of CUTS Clothing, joined Monday’s edition of The Lead on CNN to talk tariffs. Last month, Trump unilaterally slapped tariffs on the vast majority of goods coming into the U.S. in a move that roiled markets and created widespread uncertainty among businesses, particularly those reliant on imports.

“So, the larger point of these tariffs, as President Trump explains it, is he wants to remake the American economy so there’s more manufacturing going on in the United States so that you are buying your products from Indiana and Tennessee instead of China via Mexico,” host Jake Tapper said. “Is that even possible in 2025?”

“Yeah, that’s gonna take a large investment because right now, since the 1980s – at least in the textile industry – a lot of the manufacturing went over to China and Asia,” replied Borrelli, who said his company imports Chinese goods via Mexico. “And the current infrastructure is really outdated. So the quality is just not where it used to be. And that’s the big misconception. The Asian manufacturers are very, very high tech and produce very high quality. So, if it came back to the U.S., it would take a lot of infrastructure and grants like China does, to American companies to bring it back into the U.S.”

The business owner went on to explain he supports that idea, but it would take time to accomplish.

“And if I could say anything, if President Trump was listening, is we need more time to accomplish your agenda,” Borrelli added.

“Well, he’s known to watch cable news,” Tapper noted. “His folks certainly text me when we air something they don’t like. Why don’t you just give a message to him, and maybe he’ll see it? What do you want to say to him?”

Borrelli availed himself of the offer:

President Trump, as a longtime supporter of your mission and to make America great again, I want to be a part of that with you. But e-commerce companies all across the United States, we need more time. Give us a 90-day off-ramp to get off of our China goods, and just tell us the plan. If you tell us the plan, we can operate and we can know what to do.

The hard part about everything that’s happening right now is we’re trying to manage our business from day to day, and that’s very difficult. And a lot of small businesses, they don’t have the cash flow to get through a 90-day negotiation, and it’s going to devastate a lot of businesses like CUTS.

He went on to call the 145% tariffs on Chinese goods a de facto “embargo.

“We want to be a part of your mission to make America great again, but we just need more time,” Borrelli concluded.

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