90% of what you're hearing from the Democrats, RINOs and the fake news about Trump’s tariff strategy is inaccurate & misleading.
That includes from the conservo-bros who are trying to divide Team Trump and want to get rid of Bessent, Navarro & Lutnick and be the MAGA “economic” kingmakers themselves. You’ll know the saboteurs by their fruits.
President Trump’s entire goal with tariffs is to bring critical industry back to America (or to countries that we can trust won’t turn them against us) so we aren’t beholding to our enemies for things we really need. Can you imagine relying on an enemy for things we need to survive and then have them declare war on us? Where would we be then? Remember during COVID when they told us that antibiotics were in short supply because they all come from Communist China? That’s just insane.
We can keep some manufacturing in other countries for things we can live without - and where the economics don’t make sense to move to America - but that is a delicate balancing act and must be dealt with line by line.
Trump originally imposed a 10% baseline tariff on nearly all trading partners, with higher rates (20%-50%) targeting specific countries, particularly China. National security concerns drive separate processes for semiconductors and pharmaceuticals under something called Section 232 investigations - which the media always fails to mention.
A weird public feud between Musk & Navarro on tariffs emerged recently, with Navarro pushing tariffs while Musk opposed tariffs - likely because of his manufacturing relationships with China and other developing nations. Bannon & Musk are also at odds and have been for a long time. Figures like Scott Bessent (Treasury) and Howard Lutnick (business liaison) advocate using tariffs as negotiating leverage and also oppose Elon’s drastic stance against tariffs.
Stephen Miller & President Trump have come out to set the record straight. Peter Thiel also joined the chorus - since he is focused on using AI processes to enhance manufacturing, surveillance and database communication. If you want to know the truth about anything, STEPHEN MILLER is the guy I listen to. He generally has no motives and just tells it straight.
As Miller said, there is a 90 day investigation required for any tariff involved with national security. That is going on now.
STEPHEN MILLER: "When President Trump issued his reciprocal tariffs, our government at the time specifically said that chips and semiconductors were going to be dealt with through a separate Commerce authority known as a 232. That was ALWAYS the plan because those components are so essential to our national security, we need to have a separate process for dealing with how to re-shore those essential industries... there are no exemptions."
"For the national security tariffs, you have to do an investigation in order to impose the tariffs. That's why they don't have a tariff covered right now because you have to go through the investigation. We expect there will have to be some kind of tariff."
“History will record that the actions President Trump has taken in recent days were the beginning of saving the West from complete economic domination by another power.”
"President Trump had a detailed plan from the beginning that's being executed exactly as directed. And unfortunately, some in the media are deliberately mis-portraying that plan. The original 20% IEPA, that's the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for China poisoning our citizens with fentanyl, that 20% rate continues to be applied to all imports from China."
"When the president issued his reciprocal tariffs, our government at the time specifically said that chips and semiconductors, which are critical components of our national security, are going to be dealt with through a separate commerce authority known as a 232."
"That was always the plan because those components are so essential to our national security. We need to have a separate process for dealing with how to re-shore those essential industries."
"When the tariff rate went up to the full rate of 125% on top of the 20%, it was necessary to publish a more detailed list from Customs and Border Protection explaining the rates and how they're applied."
"There are no exemptions. Everyone pays at least the 20%. And these particular components are being put through a separate process controlled by the Department of Commerce, which is the 232. So this is a sophisticated, elegant, detailed plan to deal with Chinese economic aggression against the United States."
LUTNICK: "President Trump will implement a tariff model to encourage the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries to re-shore supply chains back to the Heartland. Congress has passed laws that gave the President the ability to protect our national security. We need to make medicine in America. If you don't think that's national security you're not thinking it through. If we just run gigantic trade deficits and sell our soul to the rest of the world, eventually we are going to be the worker for the rest of the world. Our president has national security in mind, and he's here to protect America."
NAVARRO: "We can't be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need. So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. He's just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These are things that are national security that we need to be made in America."
Billionaire Peter Thiel, who has been quite silent until now, just announced that he supports the need for a drastic “reset” in relations with Communist China.
PETER THIEL: “I'm hesitant to comment since obviously it's a very, very fluid situation, but we need a very drastic reset with China. In theory you need to reset with other people, but what we really need to get them to do is also reset things with China.
I think the rough numbers are that about a quarter of the US trade deficit is bilaterally with China, but another quarter is indirectly with China. So China is sort of half the problem. But China is the geopolitical rival.
Mercedes in Germany are selling cars to the US. We might want to have those pretty well paying jobs in the US and not in Germany. But, you know, Germany is probably not gonna repurpose the Mercedes factory to build tanks to invade the US or something like this. Whereas this sort of dual-use problem is the problem with China.
There are ways the economic relationship with China is fairly efficient. If people are working for a dollar and a half an hour in a Foxconn factory, we don't really want to get those jobs in Wisconsin. But it is this geopolitical rivalry where... you have to somehow factor in that the economists never are able to factor in properly with China.
The reset in trade that seems desirable to me would be that we radically change the relationship with China and we sort of induce a lot of other countries to radically change their relationship with China. And that's how we build a stronger western alliance of the free world. We could bring, using AI, some more advanced manufacturing here that was in China.
You have to always be extremely granular on how expensive the robots are, how expensive the equipment is, because in some sense, manufacturing has been getting steadily more automated for 250 years. And you've had the machines that make the machines. The machines that make the machines are getting sort of smarter and more complicated. And there are ways in which AI is a quantum leap.
There's a way in which it's just, you know, a natural continuation of this, you know, two century long process. I think there are some parts that can be moved to the US with AI. Maybe also if you change some of the environmental rules and some of the other anti-industrial policies we have in the US. But then if parts of this are moved to other emerging market countries. Vietnam is a communist country. It has bad mercantilist policies, but it's not planning to take over the world. And so at the margins, if we can move things from China to Vietnam, that's a big win.”
Meanwhile, the meaningful takeaway is that President Trump intends to break Communist China and stop their attempt to control the planet.
Stephen Miran is the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors and one of the most important people in the Trump administration right now. In a speech last week to the Hudson Institute, he very succinctly laid out the plan.
1) Destroy China’s low-end production/export sector by shifting US imports to other countries
2) Those countries agree to eliminate trade barriers
3) Their economies prosper, and they import more from the US
4) America reshores mid-range and high-end manufacturing
5) The administration cuts large numbers of government workers, freeing up labor to staff those new manufacturing jobs.
6) More jobs, more trade, more tax revenue… primarily at China’s expense.
In some ways, I think the battle between Xi and Trump is similar to the battle between Mr. Potter & George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life" - which happens to be one of my favorite movies.
I think that after Trump was almost killed last year, an angel like "Clarence" made him realize that he really could make a difference and showed him how to do that.
Xi has turned into an arrogant bully who is trying to control the world just like Mr. Potter tried to control Bedford Falls.
Mr. Potter wanted to turn Bedford Falls into Potterville just like Xi wants to turn the world into Communist China.
GEORGE: "Dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there and you can hear me, show me the way..."
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