July 10, 2020 | 10:57am | Updated July 10, 2020 | 11:27am
President Trump on Friday said his Democratic rival Joe Biden “plagiarized” his new “Buy American” economic plan.
“He plagiarized from me. But he can never pull it off — he likes plagiarizing,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn.
Biden also ran for president in 1988 but dropped out due to a plagiarism scandal. He was exposed for using without credit lines from British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock in one of his speeches.
Trump did not specify what Biden plagiarized, but the barb came after observers noticed the similarities between Biden’s new economic messaging and Trump’s more established economic nationalism.
On Thursday, Biden unveiled his economic plan with slogans including “Make it in America,” “Buy American” and “Stand up for America.” The plan calls for a boost in buying of domestic products and more research funding.
Trump on Friday slammed other parts of Biden’s plan, which calls for investment in environmentally friendly products. Biden didn’t say if new spending in his plan requires higher taxes.
“It’s very radical left, but he said the right things because he’s copying what I’ve done,” Trump said.
“But the difference is he can’t do it. And he knows he’s not doing that. It can’t be the same because he’s raising taxes way too much. He’s raising everybody’s taxes. He’s also putting tremendous amounts of regulation back on. And those two things are two primary reasons that I created the greatest economy we’ve ever had. And now we’re creating it again.”
Trump this year ended the North American Free Trade Agreement that Biden as a senator supported. Trump argued it was bad for American workers, and added anti-outsourcing provisions to the new US-Mexico-Canada agreement.
As vice president, Biden hailed as “a game changer” Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations on a trade deal with Pacific countries. Trump killed the TPP talks, saying it could cost US jobs.
