‘We will do very well by not having a good competitor’: Trump suggests economic benefit to crackdown in Hong Kong

The subject came up when Travis addressed numerous pro-democracy activists who have been arrested by Hong Kong police in recent days, including Jimmy Lai, the publisher of a prominent pro-democracy newspaper in the city. Trump’s response focused on the economics of the situation.

“Well, look. For years, Hong Kong was making a lot of money that we could have been making in the New York Stock Exchange and our great exchanges. You know, we have the biggest exchanges. We have the great dollar, the dollar which I made stronger, much stronger than it used to be out. I hope people recognize that in the world of sports,” he said.

Trump touted what he said was the U.S.’s growing economic prosperity before returning to the subject of Hong Kong.

“I will say that with Hong Kong, we gave tremendous incentives that cost us a fortune to keep Hong Kong going, and now what we’ve done, I’ve ended everything. I’ve ended all of that. There is no incentive whatsoever,” Trump said.

“We’re not spending, you know, billions of dollars on making life comfortable with them for freedom. And that was OK. We do that if they were free, but they’re not free,” he added.

Trump also suggested that China’s crackdown on the city would mean that it would cease to be the global economic powerhouse that it has grown to become. “I mean, take a look at the map,” he said. “It’s attached to China. So, it’s a little bit tough from certain standpoints, but we will do very well by not having a good competitor. I guess it’ll be a competitor but on a much smaller scale.”