Across-the-board tariffs of up to 20% are back on the table ahead of April 2 “Liberation Day”.
Trump Team Weighs Broader, Higher Tariffs
Futures were down sharply overnight on still more conflicting tariff statements from Trump.
As I type the Dow is back in the green and the S&P has recovered most losses.
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump Team Weighs Broader, Higher Tariffs
The Trump administration is scrambling to determine the specifics of its new tariff agenda ahead of its self-imposed deadline of Wednesday, weighing options as the president has promised to remake the American economy with a swath of new levies.
One key point of debate is whether to impose individualized tariff rates for U.S. trading partners, as President Trump has previewed in recent weeks, or revert to his campaign pledge for an across-the-board tariff that would affect virtually every country doing business with the U.S., say people familiar with the conversations.
Trump spent most of last week playing down expectations for his so-called reciprocal tariff plan on April 2, a line he reiterated on Air Force One on Sunday night, saying he would be “much more generous” than his previous pledges to equalize U.S. tariffs with those charged by other nations.
But in recent days Trump has pushed his team to be more aggressive, people familiar with the conversations said, encouraging them to devise plans that would apply higher rates of tariffs on a broader set of countries. Trump reinforced that narrative on Sunday night, saying he would target “essentially all” of U.S. trading partners with tariffs of some kind.
Exactly how that will happen remains unclear. In recent days, advisers have considered imposing global tariffs of up to 20% that would hit virtually all U.S. trading partners. Trump and his team for months promoted such a plan on the campaign trail, before the president publicly ditched it in favor of a so-called reciprocal tariff plan that would mean “what they [other nations] charge us, we charge them,” as the president put it.
That reciprocal plan is also still on the table, an administration official said, adding that the president is inclined to tariff every country that the U.S. runs a trade deficit with, and that he wants a “clean number” for each country, though no final decisions have been made.
Whatever the final plan, the official added, the president wants the policy to be “big and simple.” That likely means the final action will be broader than earlier plans to prioritize levying tariffs on the U.S.’s biggest trading partners, about 15% of the world’s nations, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had labeled in media appearances as the “dirty 15.”
In addition to the debate over the reciprocal tariff plan, the president’s team is considering unveiling a slate of new industry-specific tariffs that could hit critical minerals and products that contain them, among other industries, people familiar with the discussions said. It is still unclear if those duties will be unveiled April 2, but they are expected to be included in a trade policy review document that the U.S. trade representative’s office is slated to deliver to Trump on Tuesday, the day before the announcement.
Big and Simple vs 200 Clean Numbers
It seems to me that simple and 200 clean numbers, one for each country the US trades with, plus Trump’s commitment to be generous to certain countries appears to be contradictory.
However, as I have explained previously, contradictions and Trump are impossible. Thus big, simple, specific, hundreds, and changing rates on the fly, are not at all contradictory.
When Will Trump Make Up His Mind?
As we have seen, big and simple is so complex that no one still has any idea what it means.
I happen to have a musical tribute.
“In walks the market and sets Trump in line. Says batter go home son and make up your mind.”
Whatever it, means, I am prepared to be liberated on April 2.
Big and Simple Recap
March 21 2025: Trump’s Tax Hike ‘Liberation Day’ Day Begins April 2. Expect to Suffer
The pre-shocks have begun. But the big shock is on deck.
March 24 2025: Trump Says Auto, Pharma Tariffs Coming Soon, No Date Specified
Trump spun the tariff wheel of fortune for the second time today. This time, it landed on “soon”.
March 24, 2025: Trump Announces 25 Percent Tariffs on Countries that Buy Venezuela Oil
I eagerly await Trump’s major announcement for Venezuela to be the 53rd state.
March 24, 2025: Trump Postpones “Liberation Day” to Focus on the “Dirty 15”
Damn. I was all geared up for liberation.
News Flash: Trump Says “Car Companies Will Be Thrilled With Tariffs”
The word of the hour is “thrilled” by 25 percent tariffs on autos starting April 2.
March 27, 2025: Auto Tariffs Disrupt Industry, Higher prices and Job Losses Loom
For those keeping score, Tesla is a “relative” US winner, but not elsewhere.
March 27, 2025: Second Massive Wave of Imports Shows More Tariff Front Running
The advance import-export data for February is another doozie. Three charts.
Trump Demands No Price Hikes
The height of ridiculousness is Trump Tells Auto CEOs No Price Hikes, Did Comrade Kamala Win?
Given that Trump says tariffs won’t increase prices, it may seem contradictory for Trump to demand CEO not hike prices.
But today it all makes perfect sense. Prices won’t rise because Trump demands they won’t!
If that’s not a simple explanation, then what is?
Then again, Trump apparently has denied saying what he said. So some of you may be confused.
Don’t worry big and simple is coming, no matter how convoluted and complex it may seem.
Starting Tuesday morning for at least 30 hours, I will be in economic limbo. I have posts scheduled, and some very good ones, but I will not be current on news including liberation day.
I am on an overnight photography trip, Reflection Canyon Utah. Unfortunately, the weather totally sucks, but unless the boat trip is cancelled, I am committed. I hope for cancellation.
This means I will be very delayed in approving comments. Don’t repeat them as I won’t see them.
Some regular posters have their comments regularly go into hold. I believe ABCD is an example. CzarChasmReigns is another.
There are more. I don’t know why, but likely changing IP address.
If you don’t see your comments for over a day, that is why.
Sounds like a fun trip. Enjoy
Have a good time. Watch out for the crocodiles.
Remember, the boat is a sunk cost. Now decide how to best spend your time given the sunk cost 😉
All American’s should be off on Liberation Day🇺🇸Speaking with my boss today 😉
I wish President Trump would explain his strategy behind the tariff war brouhaha in terms everyone can understand: If you want to sell it here, then make it here.
Every time he or his minions explains it, its a different excuse.
Fentanyl.
Illegal immigrants.
NATO spending.
Trade deficit.
Tariffs eliminate income taxes.
Negotiating position.
Renegotiate USMCA.
National security.
Other nations ripping us off.
End Ukraine war.
Take over Gaza, Greenland, Canada.
Etc
Trump broke his own signed trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Now he wants to negotiate that and many other agreements with the rest of the world.
Why would anyone bother to sign a new agreement with Trump, since he has proven to everyone that he won’t keep it anyway?
Looking forward to Trump’s liberation day tariff announcements.
I will predict that the North American auto industry will shut down within two weeks of the tariff implementation date.
US manufacturing in general will face higher costs and end up less competitive. Lots of job losses coming up.
What a show!
Why was the random Wednesday of April 2nd or 4-2 picked? Trump must be reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and thinks that tariffs are “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything”.
DT: “We are going to tariff the hell out of everyone who has been ripping us off for decades.”
Me: Hold my beer.
I’m hoping he’ll announce an April 15 tax cut thanks to the tariff income and reduced government overhead.
“Whatever it, means, I am prepared to be liberated on April 2.”
What it meant to me is dumping equities.
I thought Liberation Day was the day each year on which we’ve paid our annual tax bills had all our income since Jan 1st went to taxes.
Nah.
One doesn’t get liberated annually 🙃
Yup. Liberation from taxes just comes once in a lifetime. At the very end.
Customers decamp and give car companies time to relocate and reload or downsize and dismantle. Business is full of choices.
The emperor has no clothes. The calculated extremely low % of total federal revenue provided by tariffs is both less than theoretically current DOGE savings and is exactly a national sales tax for consumers. The world asset-debt macroeconomic system is undergoing a time-based quantitative fractal decline of global composite equity valuations with an expected low in about May-June 2026 with an SPX valuation of 900 to 1200.
When I saw the Lovin Spoonful take I thought for sure it would have been Do You Believe in Magic?
DXY up.
2 more days. Be patient. All will be revealed.
The American people got exactly what they voted for, even if they were in denial because of the daily gaslighting and hyperbole. Anyone who knows anything about the real Donald Trump, not the Apprentice, scripted Donald Trump cannot be surprised how he is acting post SCOTUS immunity ruling and narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. For Donald Trump, “doing the right thing” is low on his list of actions. Give him any semblance of leverage, and he will use it to bludgeon anyone he places on the other side of the table, and with Trump, everyone is on the other side of the table. The U.S. has grown to be the superpower it has been globally and given such significant influence over multilateral organizations that were put in place to create a world of rules because the U.S. used its leverage quietly and sparingly, not to humiliate or offend our allies outwardly. This way, our allies supported our outsized influence and leadership in exchange for the implied umbrella of protection that comes with being a U.S. ally.
I got exactly what I voted for……America First
That is was he says but the reality is America Only, and finally Rich Americans only.
Hahahahahah. Wait till you see all the pain in America. We will be first in self inflicted pain. But, I’m thinking you like to watch other people in pain.
When Roosevelt announced that the U.S. would join Britain in the European theater to fight the Axis powers, was that America First? When Reagan stood in front of the Berlin Wall and called on Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” was that America First?
Trump is totally unpredictable. Perhaps, he wants it this way as he appears to thrive on controversy.
Trump ran for President so he could be “the most important man in the world” (his words, not mine). He wants everyone hanging on his every word, every day. So he comes up with something new and alarming every day to get his fix. Other than that, he only stands for whatever makes him popular with enough people to be the President.
Limbaugh was the same. His life’s goal was to be the most listened to man in radio. Mission accomplished. Morality none.
I’m so happy to see another article about Trump’s tariffs. It reminds me that Trump is still hard at work negotiating the best deal for his people. Let’s goooooooo🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
This has been in the works since the re-election campaign started.
Some in Business world listened and some did not.
Ongoing Data releases which will continue to be part of the outlook as it unfolds will show what is actually happening.
America first was the economic agenda. It takes Tariff policy implementation to occur as one aspect of overall direction.
Energy and food already showing signs of cost lowering. These two will boost discretionary spending.
Made in America means job availability in America will rise.
Made in America means wealth created in America stays in America for workers.
Tax policy leaving more in the pockets of workers can be effective as long as Revenue streams increase from tariff application. Ferreting out misspent fiscal policy will also contribute as a Bridge to reducing Government spending or at least bringing its growth rate significantly lower.
In General when money is to be made someone will go the distance and grow.
That sounds great! But it has never worked for any country that has tried it, especially with a consumption-based economy. Consumers will always want maximum choice and the lowest price/value relationship. Protectionism and heavy-handed industrial policy will always fail. Growth will slow, competitiveness will suffer, and higher than desired inflation will persist.
Low price does not mean much when credit card is maxed out and Rent and Food take everything else.
Job security and better wages will always pave the way for economic growth.
If Globalism was working then why is Trump President?
Globalism is not working for American worker.
The course is being charted for a different and major overhaul of Buy now pay Latter with inflated currency, MMT.
add: Last I heard, people go to work so as to better their own lot.
Not to support a Bloated bureaucratic State.
You’re conflating personal choice and personal responsibility with trade and industrial policy. When I was in middle school and high school in a rural part of the country during the 1970s my teachers and counselors all told me and all other students that the economy was changing and if we wanted to have a lifestyle better than our parents that we needed to get education and/or training beyond high school. Are you telling me that because 10s of millions did not listen to that advice and now realize the downside of not listening, the country should change course from a structure that has allowed it to out grow and out innovate every other advanced economy in the world for the last 40 years?
To quote our Marxist friends, those countries weren’t doing it right and/or didn’t go far enough.
It should dawn on every single American that giving the President (a single person in the world) control of unlimited tariffs and thereby giving the office the power to crash the global economy at any point for whatever tantrum needs to be change.
This should be the first action when dems retake control of Congress. And if Trump doesn’t want to play ball, cut off all funding to the executive branch and give Trump a taste of his own medicine.
That would be a constitutionally legitimate approach.
Yup, I’m sure his plan is to crash the global economy😜 When you become a multi billionaire and get elected president multiple times I’ll start taking you seriously.
Birds of a feather flock together, Musk is whining to trump that his stock lost half his value and it’s likely it will lose more when the world turns its back on Tesla. Trump and his team are all nihilist, sad that you don’t have the intelligence to see it.
I guess you haven’t looked at the worth of his other companies nor examined their prospects and ignored the fact that he is still the richest man in the world and he is getting richer.
Lol. So now I’m confused, are TheTenYear and Doug78 now the defenders of billionaires? I thought you guys cared about the working class and that was the whole point of Trump?
Two days till D-day, let the Trump put (you in the poorhouse) begin!
Well I doubt you are working class. You sound more like the living-in-Mom’s-basement class.
democracy works perfectly. amerikans are nihilists. so we vote for the greatest nihilist. been saying this for decades. biden and obama and bushes and clintons all nihilists. but trump is the greatest yet.
Or, give seal team 6 the Osama bin Ladin orders.
That is the Great Democrat Hope that the midterms will reverse Trump’s majority. It could be a pipe dream this time around if Trump delivers. We will see but I wouldn’t count on it.
Supply chains will be rebuilt inside the USA this quickly? Qualified employees for state of the art factories at competitive wages found domestically? Tariffed commodities cheap enough to do all this? Really???
He will deliver chaos. If that’s your plan…wheeeee!!!!
“There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind…”
F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
And yet the beat goes on and this knucklehead who has nothing but contempt for the American people sits on his throne and is one small step away from jailing and executing people.
Oh FFS
He’s right. Your freedom loving, don’t tread on me gang, have lost the fu**ing plot.
I just read that some person named ScottCraigLeBoo has been named Hangman. Congrats. It pays well.
So…you are better known as a nazi! David.
Trump and “confusing statements”? I’m shocked.
LOL, do you believe in magic would be a better tribute song.
I will work that in next time. Thanks.
Somebody was telling me in a discussion on gold in 2019 that I was an idiot for buying and holding gold & silver. They also have been repeated telling me and others on this board over the years that they were idiots for holding gold. I even remember them saying there was gazillions of gold in the oceans, etc, etc.
Meanwhile gold was $1700 Cdn in 2019 and currently making all time highs at $4485.
Silver was $20Cdn and currently $49ish.
Congratulations. Wonder who is holding onto these gains for better days. Most often, rather than secular rises, asset bubbles happen. And are prone to pop.
Thanks. I believe the fundamentals for gold grow stronger every day. Yes, gold may have gotten ahead of itself, bumpier days ahead likely and very wary of a recession.
Nonetheless will continue to hold. I see all negatives ahead for the dollar and no positives.
This is better. Same band but sure to ruffle some feathers. From a time a New York Band could sing a country song and everybody still liked it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZqgFyj5uTo
Heres another, but a bit different
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6YKJX-dXIM