President Trump Says Walmart Should ‘Eat the Tariffs’

Walmart is accustomed to attracting attention for its prices. This weekend, it caught the eyes—and ire—of the president.

The episode marked the latest example of a big company catching high profile political pushback in a still-fluid trade environment. 

Walmart (WMT) CEO Doug McMillon last week during the company’s earnings conference call thanked President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for “progress” lowering tariffs since Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement. News of a framework for trade talks with China, along with a scaling back of steep tariffs imposed by both countries on each other, has supported markets lately.

“We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible,” McMillon said on Thursday’s call, a transcript of which was made available by AlphaSense. The retailer turned in more than $165 billion of first-quarter revenue. But it also left open the possibility that profits might fall this year depending on the direction of trade policy. 

“Given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins,” McMillon said. 

Trump Says on Truth Social that Walmart Should ‘Eat the Tariffs’

“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” Trump said in a Saturday message on Truth Social. “Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS  last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”

Several companies have in recent weeks said that tariffs may lead them to raise the prices customers pay in order to sustain their markets. The Trump administration has not taken them all on publicly, but it has called out some large retailers. 

When reports landed suggesting that Amazon.com (AMZN) might detail the effect of tariffs on the prices on its site, members of the Trump administration called it a “hostile and political” act. (The company later said the idea was confined to a comparatively small part of its business and was never set to take effect.)

“We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible and we won’t stop,” Walmart Corporate Affairs Director Joe Pennington told Investopedia in a Sunday email. “We’ll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can given the reality of small retail margins.”