How Trump’s advisors got tied up in knots over his tariff obsession
Summary
- Rarely has the US seen such a spectacle of confusion over policy. Most of Trump’s team lost credibility, though Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed to emerge as a voice of reason.
US President Donald Trump’s economic team fiddled while his tariff announcements caused markets to melt down, arguing that there was a grand plan to re-order global trade for the benefit of Americans. Yet, in ignoring the anxieties of corporate leaders, members of both parties and voters, they showed themselves to be out of step and unable to lead the president down a sound path, economically and politically. His 9 April announcement of a 90-day ‘pause’ on most of those levies has further eroded the team’s credibility.
When Trump’s economic advisors were initially announced, even his critics praised his choices as mainstream figures unlikely to spook markets.
Also Read: Trump’s great tariff pause: What made him blink?
Now there is a real question of whether any are independent and secure enough to stand up to him. “This is a moment of testing for the president’s advisers," former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said. “The intellectually honest ones know that [Trump’s belief in tariffs] reflects a presidential 40-year fixation, not any kind of proven economic theory."
They failed the test.
Perhaps no one has been more personally damaged than Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the most visible cheerleader of Trump’s tariffs. On ‘Liberation Day,’ he stood next to the president in the Rose Garden and handed him the now-infamous chart. As the trade war ramped up, he took to the airwaves as frequently as he could, often sowing more confusion. He now seems to be the incredible shrinking cabinet member. In recent days, he’s been nearly invisible, ceding the spotlight to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
This seeming shift in policy and personnel comes as Trump freaked out ordinary voters who saw their retirement savings dwindle and as Republicans predicted a political bloodbath and looked to claw back their tariff power.
Also Read: Dani Rodrik: Trump’s coalition could collapse under the weight of its own contradictions
Lutnick tried to operate as a kind of Trump in miniature. He has been the anti-Wilbur Ross, Trump’s first secretary of commerce, who was most likely to make news by seeming to fall asleep. Lutnick, in contrast, has quickly become known for stealing the spotlight and going off script, such as when he claimed that anyone who complained about a delayed Social Security cheque must be a fraudster.
As my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Robert Burgess wrote, Lutnick, who previously headed Cantor Fitzgerald and has known the president for decades, “was picked for his skills as a salesman and willingness to parrot Trump’s mis-characterizations around trade, tariffs and the economy, no matter how dubious."
You can hear that parroted in his recent comments on trade with Europe: “I mean, [the EU] won’t take chicken from America! They won’t take lobsters from America," he said. “They hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak. It’s unbelievable!"
It appears the White House was not entirely on board with Lutnick trying to out-Trump the president. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lutnick was asked to curb his TV appearances back in March. Despite that, he was on TV suggesting that the US would see a flood of iPhone factory jobs as Apple reshored their production in the wake of tariffs, comments that were instantly turned into derisive memes.
When asked if Trump was thinking about postponing implementation in order to negotiate, Lutnick replied, “There is no postponing. They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks. That is sort of obvious." So much for that.
After Trump announced the tariff pause, Lutnick was asked by Fox News if the impetus was the faltering bond market. “Donald Trump is the best negotiator that there is. He understands how to do these things," Lutnick said as he laughed, seeming to get the absurdity of his claim. “He gave, these were crystal clear instructions, no negotiating until two days ago. He would be willing to negotiate, but broadly. And then yesterday there was, ‘I’ll do bespoke’ And bespoke, that’s what launched it."
Also Read: Mint Quick Edit | Tariff opponents must speak up
Trump has complained about a new party of so-called ‘Panicans,’ who are, in his words, weak and stupid, rather than strong and courageous. But it’s Trump’s own advisors who have acted like panicans—too timid to tell the president that massive tariffs are an unsound economic policy.
Together, Trump and his team pushed global markets to near-bear territory over tariffs. Now, they have largely backed off, with 75 phone calls and no actual deals to show for their misguided efforts. Their blind public allegiance to Trump helped pave the way for and prolong this colossal blunder. It could continue to prove costly for Trump politically, and more important, financially for everyone who depends on a stable economy. ©Bloomberg
The author is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.
