Trump's remarks were streamed online by many news and information organizations, including C-SPAN.

Related: Tariff wars loom over employers' prescription drug plans

Trump has said that he is increasing tariffs to keep other countries from sending goods to the United States while making it difficult for U.S. manufacturers to sell goods in those countries.

The United States is now imposing tariffs ranging from 10%, for imports from many countries, to over 104%, for imports from China.

After the original publication time for this article, he kept the 10% tariff increases in place but suspended most other, higher tariff increases, other than the higher tariffs imposed on China, for 90 day, according to a Trump message posted on the Truth Social social media service.

Because so many different U.S. health care players use imported products in so many ways, the tariffs could affect everything from employers' prescription drug plans and employer health plan spending on hospital services.

The original tariff announcement, which was released April 3, added no new tariffs for prescription drugs, but Trump administration officials said federal regulators would conduct a national security investigation that would focus on prescription drug imports.

"We're going to do something that we have to do," Trump said Tuesday at the NRCC dinner. "We're going to tariff our pharmaceuticals, and, once we do that, they're going to come rushing back into our country, because we're the big market."

India and China account for a significant share of U.S. drug imports.

Because of the new tariffs, manufacturers "will leave China, and they will leave other places, because they have to sell," Trump said. "Most of their product is sold here. And they're going to be opening up their plants all over the place in our country."

Trump predicted that China and other countries will soon make deals that will help bring down the tariffs.