Kevin O’Leary on Trump’s trade war and battle with Harvard

Amna Nawaz:

For one view on President Trump's trade wars, we turn now to Kevin O'Leary. He's a businessman, celebrity investor, and a regular member of the show "Shark Tank," where he's known as Mr. Wonderful.

Kevin O'Leary, welcome to the "News Hour." Thanks for joining us.

Kevin O’Leary, Founder, O’Leary Ventures:

Great to be here. Thank you.

Amna Nawaz:

So let's start with this legal back-and-forth when it comes to the president's tariffs.

Just today — and things are changing fast, I should note — but, as we speak, two federal courts have blocked those tariffs from going into a place. An appeals court has granted the president a temporary stay. Is it clear to you and other business leaders where things stand right now on this front?

Kevin O’Leary:

It shows that the executive in this case — and this happens in every administration — is pushing the boundaries in terms of what they believe they can do without getting any kind of feedback from the courts. And the courts are feeding them back.

And we're seeing Trump is pushing the edge. And if you're an investor like I am, you don't really care about the politics. You certainly don't make money on politics. You make money on policy. So you're trying to figure out as you watch these signals what the endgame is going to be. What is the policy going to be?

Trump is unique in the — if you look back in history, no administration has ever tried to negotiate 60 deals simultaneously, of which 18 matter. They're 70 percent of the trade. And so it's going to take a little longer.

The courts are telling you through these decisions that not so fast, Baba Looey, as they say. You got to go through a process. And that's exactly what's happening.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, let me ask you about the endgame and how you look at it here.

I'm sure you have heard this whole TACO term that's come up. It stands for, Trump always chickens out, referring to the markets tumbling after additional tariff threats and then rebounding sharply when he reverses course.

And the president got very angry when he was asked about that term yesterday. But, by one count, Kevin, he's flip-flopped, postponed or reversed course at least 21 times so far. You know the man. Is this negotiation tactic or chaos?

Kevin O’Leary:

You have got to learn with Trump — now this is his second term — that there is a lot of noise and then there's a signal.

These are two different things. If you focus on the noise, you get distracted, and 50 percent of the market and 50 percent of the world has Trump derangement syndrome. And I completely understand that. I don't bother with that. That's a waste of time.

I focus on the signal. The signal he's sending out since the beginning, since his first mandate since his first term, is, he's not happy with the trade situation worldwide vis-a-vis access to the U.S. markets, and he wants to balance them.

Clearly, what Trump is doing here, with the 17 countries, including the E.U., Britain, India, Japan, Canada, Mexico, is a set of new trade terms. And I think we're going to get kind of to a reciprocal 10 percent. That's my own assumption. I'm investing that way. And, so far, the markets have rewarded me for taking the long view.

China is a separate deal. It's a completely separate kettle of fish. And I'm very glad that they came to the table in Geneva a few weeks ago. And that's ongoing too. With Trump, whether you would like him or hate him, and it's 50/50, focus on the signal, not the noise.

You will get nowhere with the noise. The signal is what matters.

Amna Nawaz:

So let me ask you about another policy you have been vocal on, because we should note you do teach at Harvard Business School. And you have been critical of the White House policy to block international students from enrolling there.

Why is that? What do you think the president's missing on this front?

Kevin O’Leary:

I'm also critical of the stance that Harvard's taken. And I have to be careful. I'm an executive fellow. I support — let me just disclose my association with Harvard. I'm an executive fellow there. I have been for years. I support the entrepreneurship program. I teach international students and domestic students in the executive programs, the MBA, and the undergrads as well.

And also to disclose, my son, who's an engineer, was accepted at Harvard, and MIT, by the way, this year, and chose Harvard to go to school there. I think what has to happen is the president of Harvard, who, by the way, is Jewish, and he doesn't have a single antisemitic bone in his body — and so — and many of the professionals I work with there are Jewish as well.

So I don't think it's an antisemitism issue at Harvard. Harvard cannot win the battle by suing the president of the United States. The president of Harvard has to get together with the president of the United States and work out whatever they're going to work out.

Now, regarding the students — and you need to understand something here that I think I'm very passionate about. Harvard, the oldest educational institution in America, curates a remarkable cohort every year. They're agnostic to religion, to race, to geography. They find the very best of the very best of the very best worldwide, and they put them into an educational institution to advance, learn, to advance science, to advance research.

And they are the very best at it worldwide, until recently. In terms of spending dollars right now, number one in the world is in Beijing. Number two is Harvard. And so America should understand we're in a race on research because this is where the science comes from.

If we curate these people, and they come to America and they check out, their background checks have checked out, why don't we offer them the ability to stay here and advance here, to grow their businesses here? Why would we train 37 percent of the smartest people on Earth at Harvard and then kick them out of the country 24 months later? How stupid is that?

Why don't we fix this now in this negotiation? Create a program and offer it to every single educational institution in America and say, look, if you're willing to make the pass, if you get actually invited, if you make the cut and you're invited to Harvard or to MIT or to Temple or to Notre Dame, I don't care. It doesn't matter which one.

And you're willing to go through the scrutiny of background check, and we approve you, we will give you the golden ticket to stay here, because I teach these students. They don't hate America. They want to stay here. They're the smartest of the smartest people on Earth I have ever worked with. They're young. They're incredible individuals.

Why in the world would you want to kick them out of here to go back to even a competing economy that decades later they build businesses to compete with us? How stupid is that? Let's fix this now.

Amna Nawaz:

Kevin O'Leary, thank you so much for making the time to join us tonight. Please come back again soon. We appreciate your time.

Kevin O’Leary:

Take care.