President Donald Trump on Wednesday stood in the Rose Garden against the backdrop of an American flag-drenched colonnade, cradled a chart of countries he said had ‘ripped off’ the U.S. and — with a showman’s flair — meted out the massive tariffs he has dreamed of for decades.
It’s a risky bet.
The unprecedented levies Trump announced on U.S. allies and adversaries alike, which will take effect in the coming days, mark the beginning of the most dramatic and comprehensive experiment with protectionism of the modern era — and one that could have devastating consequences should it backfire.
Trump’s Passion for Tariffs
While other priorities like cutting government spending and ending diversity programs have dominated the early weeks of Trump’s second administration, tariffs are an issue Trump has been passionate about for decades. Trump has wanted to restore what he sees as trade imbalances with other countries since at least the 1980s, when he argued that the U.S. was being ‘ripped off’ by Japan and other countries and called for a tax of 15 to 20 percent on imports from the East Asian country.
Trump on Wednesday announced the tariffs against each country one-by-one — ranging from 10 to 50 percent — with the panache of a gameshow host, promising that they would restore fairness to U.S. trading relationships he has long complained about. The Rose Garden ceremony, he said, was a celebration — and he treated it like one.
“I’ve been talking about it for 40 years, because I saw what was happening,” he said, referencing old interviews from when he was ‘young, very handsome.’
“I’d be talking about how we were being ripped off by these countries,” he continued. “I mean, nothing changes very much. The only thing to change was the countries, but nothing really changes.”
Economic Impact and Reactions
The White House spent much of Wednesday making a pre-buttal of the backlash it knew the tariff proposal would inevitably receive, including an email that mapped out media coverage of previous tariffs that the administration claimed was proven wrong. But no tariffs of this size and scale have been levied in the modern era, making it uncertain exactly how dramatic the impact on the economy will be.
Still, the reaction from Wall Street and the business community was swift. Though the markets had already closed for the day, S&P 500 Futures sank 1.9 percent while the NASDAQ 100 Futures slid 2.7 percent immediately following the announcement. And a swath of industries — from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the International Dairy Foods Association — issued immediate denunciations.
‘Broad and prolonged tariffs on our top trading partners and growing markets will risk undermining our investments, raising costs for American businesses and consumers, and creating uncertainty for American dairy farmers and rural communities,’ said Becky Rasdall Vargas, the association’s senior vice president of trade and workforce policy.
Political Response and Future Outlook
Unlike in his first term, when he negotiated deals with countries like Canada, Mexico and China, Trump does not appear to be using tariffs as a bargaining chip this time around. Trump said Wednesday that if companies want their tariff rate to be zero, they need to manufacture their products directly in the U.S. and urged foreign leaders to drop trade barriers.
The announcement comes as the Senate, including a handful of GOP senators, is set to symbolically rebuke Trump’s tariff policies in a Wednesday evening vote. Many Republican senators have expressed discomfort with the president and his tariff policies — particularly the levies on U.S. allies like Canada and those in Europe, but have been unwilling to publicly cross the president, instead voicing hope that Trump’s plans will work out how he intends them to.
Speaker Mike Johnson, meanwhile, telegraphed optimism that the new tariffs would inspire countries to remove trade barriers, a point Republican lawmakers have been underscoring in recent days — despite the White House’s insistence they are not looking to negotiate down their new tariffs in the coming weeks.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said that Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell have agreed to support his measure that would terminate the national emergency the president has used to justify his tariffs on Canada.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social early Wednesday morning, accused the four senators of having “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the term the president and his allies often use to describe people who oppose the administration’s policies. He added that the senators have been “extremely difficult to deal with” and accused them of being “unbelievably disloyal” to Thune.
