"Let me tell you what the tax should be: The tax should be 45 percent," Trump says in audio released by the New York Times. | AP Photo New York Times posts audio refuting Trump

Donald Trump would impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports if he were president, the Republican poll leader says in new audio published by The New York Times late Thursday.

“I would tax China coming in — products coming in,” Trump says. “I would do a tariff, and they do it to us. We have to be smart.”


Throughout the four-minute exchange of audio released by The New York Times editorial board, Trump maintains that he’s a “free trader” and loves free trade. “But it’s got to be reasonably fair,” he says of a tariff on Chinese goods. “I would do a tax, and the tax — let me tell you what the tax should be: The tax should be 45 percent. That would be a tax that would be an equivalent to some of the kind of, you know, devaluations that they’ve done. They cannot believe that we haven’t done this yet.”

The release of the audio comes after Trump twice this week denied having said those remarks. “I don’t even know where the 45 percent came from,” he told Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto on Tuesday.

Asked again, this time at Thursday’s Republican debate, the billionaire businessman said The Times’ quote was wrong. “That’s wrong,” he told Cavuto. “They were wrong. It’s The New York Times. They are always wrong.”

“What I said to The New York Times is that we have great power, economic power over China and if we wanted to use that and the amount — where the 45 percent comes in, that would be the amount they saw their devaluations that we should get,” Trump added.