Billionaire Mark Cuban has slammed former President Donald Trump's plans to revive Michigan's car industry.
Trump visited a General Motors site, which will become an electric vehicle facility, in the state on Thursday and made a statement in an interview with Detroit News that Cuban later criticized.
"We're going to bring back the car industry," Trump said. "We're not going to let it disappear. We're going to bring back jobs, we're going to bring back factories and make Michigan very successful again. And we can do that very easily through the taxation of foreign nations."
It was the notion of taxing foreign nations that caught Cuban's eye and he shared the quote to X, formerly Twitter, with his own addition asking: "Can someone explain to me how we would tax a foreign nation?"
He continued in a thread, "A tariff is a tax imposed on foreign-made goods, paid by the IMPORTING BUSINESS (Walmart would be an example) to its home country's government. (USA) As an example , Walmart imports billions and billions of goods. If there is a 10 pct [percent] tariff, Walmart pays the US government 10pct on those billions, and guess who they pass that cost on to?"
Following that thread, Cuban— who is a vocal critic of Trump— reposted someone who had replied to him, seemingly interpreting Trump's comments.
That X user, @fau1n wrote: "Let me help you Mark - You put a tariff on a Chinese car because they use child labor and abusive human rights policies to produce at extremely low costs. This allows the American car companies to stay competitive in relative price terms because clowns like you demand minimum wage is like $40/hour for screwing in a bolt. :)"
Cuban reposted that explanation adding his two cents: "Let's try again. Why is everyone a "Trump Whisperer?" Why can't he just say what he means ?"
Newsweek contacted Cuban by email and Trump's representatives by email for comment.
Cuban's post was not the only time recently Trump's comments have come under scrutiny.
His mention of bacon during a campaign speech in Wisconsin on Thursday has sparked conversation on social media.
The Republican presidential nominee for November's election talked about the cost of living at a town hall event in La Crosse after he was asked what he would do "to make life more affordable and bring down inflation."
Trump replied by saying: "You take a look at bacon and some of these products... Some people don't eat bacon anymore.
"And we're going to get the energy prices down... You know, this was caused by their horrible energy. Wind. They want wind all over the place. When it doesn't blow, we have a problem."
People reacted to the response, including by journalist Charles P. Pierce, who wrote on X, "Hi, I'm running for president, and my brain is made of potatoes."
Another X user wrote: "What is this word salad?"
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