Trumps tariff playbook comes with a baseball twist

Say what you like about U.S. President Donald Trump's leadership style and policies, but he has a way with words.

Trump's love of deal-making and former career as a real estate magnate are both well-known, with the loquacious president often peppering his speeches and interviews with business-related terminology. Now, he's turning to the sports world for inspiration when discussing the U.S.' recent trade deals with global trading partners.

In a Tuesday interview with CNBC, the president likened billions of dollars' worth of investments in the U.S. — pledged by Europe and Japan as part of their recent trade deals with Washington — to the “signing bonus” baseball players typically get when they join new teams.

“We're taking in trillions of dollars,” Trump told CNBC's “Squawk Box,” noting “people love the tariffs, they love the trade deals, and they love that foreign countries aren't ripping us off anymore.”

“If you look at Japan, we're taking in $550 billion, and that's like a signing bonus that a baseball player would get. He would get slightly less than that ... But they give a signing bonus of a million dollars, or $2 million or $20 million, or whatever the hell they give today,” he said.

“So I got a signing bonus from Japan of $550 billion. That's our money. It's our money to invest, as we like.” He also noted the European Union's pledge to both invest in the U.S. and buy $750 billion worth of American energy.