President-elect Donald Trump said he “can’t guarantee anything” when asked whether his proposed tariffs would increase prices for American families, in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday.

“I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” Trump said, when host Kristen Welker asked if he can guarantee American families won’t pay more under his tariff plan. “But I can say that if you looked at my — just pre-Covid, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. And I had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries, but in particular China.

He added, “We took in hundreds of billions of dollars and we had no inflation. In fact, when I handed it over, they didn’t have inflation for a year and a half.”

Tariffs are paid by the American companies that import products, not the countries that export them. Welker noted in the interview that economists agree that consumers pay higher prices because of tariffs. Trump responded by saying, “I don’t believe that.”

Trump also added that he is a “big believer in tariffs” and noted that the United States is subsidizing countries like Canada and Mexico. “We shouldn’t be — why are we subsidizing these countries?” he said.

“I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they’re beautiful. It’s going to make us rich,” Trump said. “If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state. We’re subsidizing Mexico and we’re subsidizing Canada and we’re subsidizing many countries all over the world. And all I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field.”

Welker also noted to Trump that tariffs during his first administration “cost Americans some $80 billion” and that major companies like Walmart have already said these tariffs would force them to increase prices. But Trump disagreed, saying that tariffs “cost Americans nothing” and “made the economy great.” Trump also said tariffs help solve wars abroad.

“They have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used. I don’t say you use them like a madman. I say properly used,” Trump said. “But it didn’t cost this country anything. It made this country money.”

Trump also said he never “got the chance to go all out” on tariffs because of the Coronavirus pandemic hitting during his last year in office.

“When I handed it over to Biden, the stock market was higher than what it was just previous to Covid coming in. It was actually higher,” Trump said. “Tariffs are a — properly used, are a very powerful tool, not only economically, but also for getting other things outside of economics.”