Senior White House Officials Taylor Budowich, Stephen Miller, and Karoline Leavitt have a discussion on Tariffs with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
President Trump’s trade and tariff policy is a complete restructuring and reset of the U.S. economy and manufacturing base. The former presidential administrations (both parties) from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan, to George HW Bush, to Bill Clinton, to George W Bush, to Barack Obama and forward to Joe Biden, all of them purposefully and with specific intent taking apart the U.S. manufacturing base through trade and economic policy.
The discussion below is familiar to those who have watched the MAGAnomic policy unfold. However, for those who are only beginning to understand just how impactful these policies will have on the life of your family, this conversation begins the journey. WATCH:
President Trump delivers a speech at the White House outlining a global trade reset established on the principle of trade and tariff reciprocity. [Primary Executive Order Here] – [Executive Order Here]
“The post-war international economic system was based upon three incorrect assumptions: first, that if the United States led the world in liberalizing tariff and non-tariff barriers the rest of the world would follow; second, that such liberalization would ultimately result in more economic convergence and increased domestic consumption among U.S. trading partners converging towards the share in the United States; and third, that as a result, the United States would not accrue large and persistent goods trade deficits.”
“Put simply, while World Trade Organization (WTO) Members agreed to bind their tariff rates on a most-favored-nation (MFN) basis and thereby provide their best tariff rates to all WTO Members, they did not agree to bind their tariff rates at similarly low levels or to apply tariff rates on a reciprocal basis. Consequently, according to the WTO, the United States has among the lowest simple average MFN tariff rates in the world at 3.3 percent, while many of our key trading partners like Brazil (11.2 percent), China (7.5 percent), the European Union (EU) (5 percent), India (17 percent), and Vietnam (9.4 percent) have simple average MFN tariff rates that are significantly higher.”
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Country-specific ad valorem rates of duty as specified in Annex I to the main Executive Order.
The tariffs generally target completed goods, not the imported chemical or component materials needed to by industry to manufacture the products domestically. Annex II are the exemptions to the Executive Order.
I have been going through the details and will have much more soon.
Wall Street, the Bankers, the Hedge Funds, the multinational corporations, K-Street Lobbying firms, Democrats, Republicans, leftists, globalists, and every other segment of the financial media who define themselves through the prism of their bank accounts, need someone else to blame for the Trump tariffs; because Trump doesn’t care.
It looks like the professional political class have decided to focus all financial firepower against Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
With the anticipated reciprocal tariffs announcement tomorrow, Liberty Day as President Trump calls it, the high-finance multinationals and Wall Street crowd are going bananas. Here come the hits against Lutnick.
(Politico) -‘I don’t know anyone that isn’t pissed off at him’: Trump world turns on Lutnick. As ‘Liberation Day’ nears, patience for the Commerce secretary is wearing thin across the Trump administration. (read more)
(New York Post) – Frustration grows with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ahead of Trump tariff announcement: ‘Loose cannon with half-baked ideas’ (read more)
Appearing on Fox New with Maria Bartiromo, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett walks through the intent of the upcoming April 2nd ‘liberation day’ tariffs.
Hassett notes the auto tariffs are likely to generationally change the dynamic of car manufacturing in the USA. Additionally, the stock market disruption is entirely predictable against the dynamic of Wall Street -vs- Main Street. WATCH:
Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech to the nation notifying the Canadian people that the era of an economic and military collaborative relationship between the United States and Canada is over.
As the majority of Canadians cheer, the Prime Minister said that Canada as a free independent and sovereign nation will now embrace its connections to the United Kingdon and European Union and seek to replace their national dependency on the United States by severing ties in North America and entering a new era of close relations with Great Britain and Europe.
When questioned if Canada would join the European Union, a seemingly natural fit for the ideologically aligned country, Prime Minister Carney said, “nothing is off the table.” In a rather remarkable end to the confrontation, the Carney says the economic and military ties between the USA and Canada are officially declared severed. WATCH:
“We as Canadians, have agency”… What does that even mean?
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President Trump asked Prime Minister Trudeau and the Canadian government to close the border to narcotraffickers and shutdown the pipeline of Chinese fentanyl. The Canadian govt chose not to and Prime Minister Mark Carney continues the refusal.
The entire Canadian border enforcement system, agents, support personnel, the entire operation for 5,000-mile border consists of 300 people. Not exactly a strong commitment to border security.
The atomic sledgehammer that President Trump just delivered to the German auto industry simply cannot be overemphasized. A 25% tariff on imported cars and car parts completely negates hundreds of billions in pre-positioned investment dollars by German auto companies in Mexico. [Executive Order Here]
To give scale to the impact on Germany, consider that German automakers currently have 330 automotive suppliers in Mexico according to information from VDA. Audi (a subsidiary of Volkswagen) has no U.S. production sites; every Audi sold in America will be subject to a 25% tariff. The Audi brand access to the U.S. market was/is 100% dependent on Mexico, including for manufacturing the Q5 SUV, its top-selling U.S. model.
According to prior reporting from Politico, “Volkswagen’s most popular model for American consumers is the Tiguan, an SUV that is entirely manufactured in Mexico. The German automaker sold over 30,000 of the vehicles in the final quarter of last year, a nearly 50 percent year-over-year increase.” But wait, it gets worse….
During an executive order signing session in the White House today, President Trump announced a major change in tariffs on the auto industry. [Full Executive Order Here]
The 25% import duty applies on top of any preexisting tariff for cars and light trucks. The 25% tariff also applies to imported car parts. The USMCA trade agreement between the U.S. Canada and Mexico still applies.
If the content of a car assembled in Mexico/Canada contains 50 percent component parts from the USA, the 25% tariff only applies to the final value of the imported components. In this example the tariff rate would be 12.5% of the total value.
The tariff applies to all imported cars and light trucks. Approximately half of all cars sold in the USA are currently American made, the other half are import vehicles from mainly Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Germany.
This is a very big kick in the teeth to Germany. Previously in a long-term strategy to avoid U.S. tariffs, German automakers invested billions in auto assembly plants in Mexico. Ex. the BMW parts were shipped from Germany and the cars assembled in Mexico. Now that investment is worthless as the vehicle will be taxed at a rate of 25% regardless of whether it is assembled in Germany or Mexico.
Ex.2 High end auto Mercedes currently builds SUVs in the USA in order to avoid the previous 25% tariff; however, they still build cars outside the USA and export them into the USA market. This will likely change quickly, and Mercedes will begin building all cars and SUVs in the USA.
Tariffs simply work. This is no longer a debatable issue, and decades of Wall Street gaslighting collapses as the outcomes of tariffs generate visible economic benefits for all Americans.
South Korea-based Hyundai and President Donald Trump announced a $20 billion investment in US on-shoring on Monday, which includes a $5 billion steel plant in Louisiana,
The $5.8 billion Louisiana facility will be the car manufacturers’ first steel manufacturing facility in the US and will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of steel a year and create more than 1,400 jobs. It will supply steel to auto plants in Alabama and Georgia, Trump said in remarks at the White House.
The announcement at the White House included President Trump, Hyundai Chairman Euisun Chung and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. WATCH:
The Hyundai announcement comes as the highly anticipated April 2nd “reciprocity tariffs” are scheduled to begin against all nations. For the EU this means an end to the 80-year-old Marshal plan of economic benefit.
Effective April 2, 2025, the U.S. will begin a process of reciprocal tariffs on imports from all nations with tariffs against U.S. products.
If a nation charges a 20% tariff on a U.S. good, in combination with a 20% non-tariff trade barrier, President Trump will calculate the financial impact and then reciprocate with a 40% tariff put on that nation’s goods being imported to the USA.
Globally, all nations are calculating how to deal with this issue. Hyundai’s best position calculations end up with this announcement.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears for an extensive discussion with the All In podcast. Secretary Lutnick has been a 30-year friend of President Trump and is currently one of the most critical members of the MAGAnomic team who are executing Trump’s agenda to Make America Great Again.
Secretary Lutnick outlines the background of what makes President Trump so effective in his position, and within the discussion Lutnick notes at the core of Donald Trump is “the most intuitive person he has ever known.” This is a casual discussion about President Trump and how Lutnick came into the administration. WATCH:
CHAPTERS:
(0:00) Chamath and Friedberg welcome Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick!
(1:10) Howard describes his 30+ year relationship with President Trump and his road from business to politics
(14:44) Running Trump’s transition team, DOGE origin story, what it’s like working for Trump
(38:01) Balancing the budget and fixing GDP
(52:21) Tariff history and strategy, global trade
(1:10:34) Trump Cards, building better government software, AI thoughts
(1:22:49) Sovereign Wealth Fund strategy
(1:37:16) How his family reacted to his new role
If you are concerned about the economics of American life, the first step is to understand the financial influences that were put into place by President Obama, then again with Obama’s team using the auspices of Joe Biden.
President Trump is rapidly untangling the tentacles of Obama’s “share the wealth” exfiltration policy, and he will achieve success on a scale most economic analysts cannot fathom. Traditional financial media, including those who follow the influences of Wall Street are constrained by their need to retain pretenses. However, President Trump and his economic team are very clear-eyed and focused.
We are already seeing major drops in core energy prices including gasoline. These decreases will have downstream impacts on all consumer goods, and we will notice a significant drop in food prices in two steps.
The first will be moderate and the result of harvest one cost decreases. The second price drop will be even greater and will come as a result in major farm costs for the second harvest sequence. By Thanksgiving 2025, lowered energy prices in combination with ‘food prepared at home’ price drops will be the leading cause of a major decline in inflation.
In the background of this domestic outcome, the April 2nd tariffs will start to ripple through durable goods. Initially, there will be waves and fluctuations as some durable goods prices increase and other durable goods prices decrease. The more the components of the product are domestically manufactured, the more the price of the end product will drop in price.
As a result, the aggregate downward pressure (higher domestic content) will exceed the upward pressure (higher import content component goods) and overall prices for durable goods will decline. This deflationary pressure point will increase over time as the end of the Marshal Plan starts to return dollars to the United States.
