Donald Trump’s cronies stormed US television networks this weekend as they sought to reassure the public of the president’s bizarre trade policies after his tariffs sent the markets into freefall.
Trump said on his social media platform that there will be no exemptions for his sweeping tariff agenda, disputing claims he granted exceptions for certain electronics, including smart phones, whose production is concentrated in China. He claimed “those products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”
As the White House advisers and Cabinet members attempted to project confidence, their reasoning for the move reflected the president’s own shifting narratives. In 2024, Trump promised an immediate boost and lower prices, but is now asking Americans to be patient.
A week ago, Trump’s team stood by his promise to leave the impending tariffs in place without exceptions. They used their latest news show appearances to defend his move to ratchet back to a 10% universal tariff for most nations except China (145%), while seeming to grant exemptions for certain electronics like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors and semiconductor chips.
Here are the highlights of what Trump lieutenants said last week vs. Sunday.
One key part of Trump’s campaign strategy was promising citizens in industrial heartlands a reindustrialisation of the nation, vowing to seize manufacturing from foreign companies and bring it back to the US. A major part of this was the elimination of trade deficits with other countries.
Speaking to CBS last week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made no mention of Trump’s long-held reason, claiming instead it was a “national security issue” driving the decisions.
He raised worst-case scenarios of how the US would cope if it were involved in a major conflict. “We don’t make medicine in this country anymore. We don’t make ships. We don’t have enough steel and aluminum to fight a battle, right?” he said.
On Sunday, he kept the national security frame, but trade adviser Peter Navarro – who authored a book slamming Chinese trade policy – said the leveraging of import taxes fits into a wider economic strategy.
“The world cheats us. They’ve been cheating us for decades,” Navarro said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He mentioned the dumping of products at unfairly low prices, the manipulation of currency, and process of excluding US-made products from entering foreign markets.
Navarro said the purpose of the tariffs would push countries across the world to meet the US at the negotiating table, where they can address those issues. He then called out China for killing “over a million people with their fentanyl”, saying that was a reason for the tariffs.
After Liberation Day, Trump said countries would be queuing up to “make a deal” with him. Director of the White House Economic Council Kevin Hassett told ABC: “I’ve heard there are negotiations ongoing and that there are a number of offers”.
Putting a number on it, he said more than 50 countries were in the process of reaching out but failed to mention one of them.
On Sunday, Navarro named a few countries – the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Israel, as being involved in active negotiations.
On Sunday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the US planned “to get meaningful deals before 90 days”, adding that “several countries” should have made deals in the “next few weeks”. China was not included in that list, but conversations between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected.
Even in the face of trillions of dollars of losses on the trading markets, Trump’s team have continued to present a confident and unified stance.
“The first rule, particularly for the smaller investors out there, you can’t lose money unless you sell. And, right now, the smart strategy is not to panic,” Navarro said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
On Sunday, his optimism remained even as the losses continued for another week. “So, this is unfolding exactly like we thought it would in a dominant scenario,” he said.
The other officials did address Trump’s idea or returning the US back to some kind of manufacturing age. Lutnick said the plan was to return high-tech jobs to the country. He sidestepped questions about lower-skilled manufacturing of goods like shoes.
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