“A Wall Street that had been excited for Trump, and the unleashing of animal spirits in markets, is now deflated,” says The Wall Street Journal this morning, as “top executives sense their opinions don’t carry much weight with the president.”
“Many supported Trump last year even while knowing that the steep tariffs he had long promised could be destructive to both the tech industry and the economy as a whole, but they felt that Trump could be swayed by advisers such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to adopt a softer approach,” says The Washington Post.
Over the weekend, Trump officials said that more than 50 countries had asked for negotiations on the tariffs, says WSJ columnist Greg Ip. But leading up to the tariff announcement, talks had been going on for weeks without Trump making a deal to avoid tariffs.
“We are always open for negotiations, but when we, like our Canadian and Mexican friends, ask our American friends, what’s the endgame, the White House can’t tell you what they want,” Ip quotes one European official as saying.
Trump's Trade Representative Jamieson Greer came under fire from Republicans and Democrats on Tuesday in a Senate Finance Committee hearing, reports The Associated Press.
Sen. Ron Wyden, Ore., the committee’s top Democrat, asked Greer: “What is the plan? In the last week, the White House has been all over the map when it comes to these tariffs. There is no clear message about how they were determined, what they’re supposed to accomplish, how long they will be in place, whether they’re a negotiating tool or a move to try and cut the United States off from global trade and usher in a new era of 1870s-style protectionism.’’
Here is historian Heather Cox Richardson's comprehensive rundown on what’s going on.
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