Whoopi Goldberg lambasts Trump tariffs on The View: ‘Not what the American people want’

‘The View’ co-host expressed her bafflement about Trump’s international trade war

Whoopi Goldberg has hit out at Donald Trump for imposing tariffs on U.S. imports from much of the world.

The actor and comedian, 69, was speaking on talk show The View following a discussion in which she and her co-hosts expressed their bafflement about the President’s decision to instigate a trade war with the majority of the planet.

Joy Behar speculated that Trump is deliberately crashing the stock market to make it easier for his wealthy friends to buy up stock, pointing to the President’s post on social media site TruthSocial that read: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

Sunny Hostin argued that the President is simply “not a good business person,” pointing to his record of bankrupting his own casinos.

Addressing international viewers directly, Goldberg said: “This is what I’m going to say about this. All you countries who watch us, this is not our wish. This is not what the American people want. We don’t like it. We don’t like how this is being done.”

She continued: “That’s why you will hear us kvetching about this as long as we are able because no one we are talking to understands what’s going on. And therefore, when they say ‘America,’ they are not talking about us. They are talking about that very narrow band of America that they think they represent, that I think they don’t realize they are starting to lose.”

Whoopi Goldberg discusses Donald Trump's controversial tariffs on 'The View' (The View/ABC)

Earlier today, both the European Union and China announced they are imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports.

China is also reportedly considering a ban on all U.S. films in response to Trump’s tariffs.

Two widely followed Chinese bloggers with links to the local authorities shared identical lists of measures that could be introduced, including “reducing or banning the import of U.S. films.”

The bloggers, Liu Hong, a senior editor at the Xinhua News Agency, and Ren Yi, grandson of former Guangdong Province Communist Party chief Ren Zhongyi, both attributed the plans to sources familiar with the Chinese state’s planning.

In 2024, U.S. films grossed around $585 million in China. This represents around 3.5 per cent of China's total $17.71 billion box office. A significant proportion of that haul was attributable to the success of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which made $132 million in China.

The total U.S. and Canada domestic box office for the same period was around $8.56 billion.

Last week, Goldberg and her The View co-hosts reacted to the White House Correspondents’ Association pulling comedian Amber Ruffin as its headliner at this year’s annual fundraising dinner by asking Ruffin to do her planned act on their show instead.