Trump Adds Even MORE Tariffs

All right, the new tariff rates are

coming out just moments ago. 25% tariffs

on the Philippines, 25% tariffs on Brun,

25% tariff on Malddova,

Iraq, in case you're wondering how much

trade we do with Iraq. Uh, not much.

You've got 25% tariffs on Moldova,

30% on Algeria,

uh, and the trade that Iraq engages with

the United States in is about 9.1

billion of goods. We exported about 1.7

billion to them.

Very, very small. 30% tariffs. This just

now coming through seconds ago. 30%

tariffs now on Libya as well.

So it looks like uh we're we're getting

sort of a broad application of more

larger tariffs that are uh multiples of

the flat 90-day pause reciprocal tariff.

Let's talk tariffs.

And that unleashed enormous economic

growth in this country. And so

preserving that as we go forward was

absolutely critical. But it certainly

demonstrates that when you have

predictability, you can do forward

planning. You know what you you're going

to do on production and input costs and

inventory and customer demand and your

supply chain. And with the way in which

these trade conversations have unfolded,

it's been the exact opposite of that.

And so I think when it comes to growth,

uh we see with the tax bill, we have

wind at our backs. That's a very

progrowth policy. And the way we have

approached the trade conversations has

created an environment whether it was

intended or not that has restrained

growth and uh as yet has not yielded the

great results that

I actually disagree with this guy that

the trade policy so far has restrained

growth. I actually think it's the

opposite. First of all, I totally agree

that trade or that the big beautiful

bill is stimulative. Whether you're a

Democrat or Republican, you should look

at this bill as government blowing

money, spending money to stimulate, you

know, in their ways, right? But this is

pure stimulus money and pure deficit

money printing is essentially what it

is. We're borrowing from future

generations to give to now. That said, I

this guy's idea that the economy

is somewhat had headwinds because of

tariffs, I think, is wrong. I think the

stock market had headwinds in April, but

not the economy. The economy actually

pulled forward demand. People bought

cars who previously wouldn't have bought

cars. Uh people moved up their purchases

of computers or machinery or inventory

for their businesses for the fear that

we were about to have these long

tariffs. Now, tariffs keep getting

kicked down the road. Peter Navaro first

time in in three months was on TV

running the circuits this morning on Fox

News and Bloomberg later. Uh but it's

interesting because what's actually

happened is the more we've dragged out

tariffs, despite the fact that now we're

talking about 50% extra tariffs on

copper, doubling steel tariffs, and 200%

pharmaceutical tariffs, the more we

delay tariffs, the more we actually kind

of use tariffs as stimulus. So, in a

weird way, the big beautiful bill has

been stimulative and then the threat of

tariffs coming has been stimulative

because you're getting people to spend

money that they may have delayed

spending previously. So, you kind of

have these two stimulative forces that

have are now converging supporting this

economy. Now, could that break if we

actually start hitting real trade, you

know, tariffs? Maybe. But then again,

look at this piece from the Wall Street

Journal. This kind of makes me think

that we're just going to be kicking down

the this this can of tariffs for years.

And if we do that for years, you're kind

of constantly telling people like, "Hey,

may as well keep building up inventory

cuz you don't know what I'm going to do

next week." It's kind of like in a weird

broken way the perfect amount of fear

you need to get people to keep spending

to drive the economy. Take a look at

this. Trump delayed reciprocal tariffs

after Bessant wanted more time on deals.

President Trump decided to delay the

implementation of so-called reciprocal

tariffs to August 1st after advisers

including Bessant told him he could get

more trade deals with more time.

I kind of doubt it because I still think

we're up against this coalition of the

the nonwilling to participate with the

US sort of unilateral terrorists. I

think Vietnam doesn't really have much

of a choice, especially since they've

become such a trans shipper shipper for

Chinese goods. Our trade with Vietnam

has 3xed over the last 5 years, you

know, following Chinese uh tariffs uh in

in tariff warfare 1.0 in 2018. But

remember, trade deals can take years to

actually get done. And in a weird way,

if it continues to motivate people to

build inventory or spend money, it kind

of good for GDP. At some point, the bill

comes due. You know, you can't kind of

hold this over people's head of, oh,

keep building inventory, keep building

inventory. At some point, people stopped

building inventory. At some point, the

tariffs hit and at some point people

stopped spending. That point's on now.

But anyway, administration officials,

including Bessant, felt as if they were

making progress on deals with several

trading partners such as India and the

European Union as Trump's previous

deadline approached. An initial pause on

reciprocal tariffs was set to lapse at

12:01 a.m. Wednesday until Trump on

Monday further postponed the

implementation date for three weeks.

Right. The weekend before his Monday

announcement, Trump deliberated in phone

calls and private conversations with

allies. Okay. And what did he say?

According to people familiar with

matter, Trump was weighing whether he

should give a new August deadline or

send out letters without a date and

simply a declaration of tariffs. Oh,

interesting. So he was considering not

having this August 1st delay at all.

Trump had mused publicly about moving

away from notching agreements to avert

tariffs. His inclination to let tariffs

snap into effect shifted after he heard

from Besson that some deals were close

but needed more time. Besson was a key

aid who convinced uh Trump on the

initial 90-day pause in April as uh

Liberation Day tariffs rattled global

markets. So Besson has really become

this this voice of I hate to say it sort

of reason. He's still you know a knee

bender for Trump. Let's be clear about

that. And you know ignores the longer

run implications that uh tariffs can

cause which we really don't see yet

obviously because we've been on pause.

But he's definitely a lot more

reasonable than sort of the Navarro

types who who are, you know, going to be

kind of your hardliners on this is

great, we're making so much money, more

tariffs now, no delays.

Over exaggerating a little bit here, but

anyway, White House spokesperson uh said

that the US is receiving heavy interest

to lower tariffs, but Trump has been

clear the United States holds the cards.

Right. Right. The US holds the cards. Uh

this is like what we've heard with Paris

where they're like, you know, well,

France basically, hey, you know, we'll

consider a deal, but you need to exempt

certain of our industries. And and here

what we're getting is uh no, no, no, no.

Like Trump wants bigly tariffs because

he does brag about the revenues. You see

this on truth or in media reports. Trump

loves the revenue that's coming in for

from these tariffs. Uh but you know

that's on limited levels of tariffs with

substantial pauses and still front

running of supplies holding the economy

up. Makes you wonder when that that bill

comes due. But anyway, in phone calls,

Trump told aids and allies he was

frustrated with the lack of progress

being made with countries. Yeah, so so

was everyone blaming those nations for

not coming to the table with offers that

in his view were good enough for the US,

said some of the people familiar. Trump

argued privately he was riding a wave of

momentum from signing the big beautiful

bill and bombing of Iran and wanted to

ride those perceived wins to victories

on trade policies.

Win win. All we do is win. Nobody knows

winning more than Donnie.

Maybe except for Elon. Oh, wait. Oh, too

soon. Too soon. Uh, in the end, Trump

decided to send out the letters along

with delays as a negotiating tactic to

ek out lastminute concessions from

trading partners. People familiar to the

matter said, "Yeah, I mean, this is very

much like liberation 2.0, except the

market doesn't care right now because

the market looks at this and says, "All

right, whatever." You know, liberation

1.0 was a buy the dib, so we're not

going to react to Trump's nonsense on

tariffs here. Let's wait to actually see

some damage show up, and that could take

months to show up. Commerce Secretary

Lutnik said on CNBC that 15 to 20 tariff

letters would be expected within the

next two days. Trump, a vocal advocate,

says tariffs will start being paid on

August 1st. No change to this date. Uh,

a letter means a deal. He said what?

During a cabinet meeting Tuesday, he

asserted that his letters to other

nations constituted a pact. A letter

means a deal. Wait, that's the opposite

of what he told us last month. He said

that if we can't make a deal, we'll just

send them a letter and tell them what

they're going to pay. Now all of a

sudden, a letter means that they've

struck a deal. Well, that's the opposite

of what he said last month. So that's

fugazi.

Trump on Tuesday also previewed other

tariffs imposed under a separate legal

authority, saying he would impose 50%

tariffs on copper, 200% of pharma,

setting national security concerns

companies would be given up would be

given up to a year and a half to

relocate pharma supply chains before the

levies would take effect. Again, delay,

delay, delay, delay. Year and a half on

pharma. Lnik later said that the copper

announcement would be posted during the

day, but it hadn't been as of Tuesday

night. Uh so this is the expectation

that we're going to get this. Trump also

played down the prospect of every

country getting a deal to avoid his

steep reciprocal tariffs. We've got 200

countries. We can't meet with 200

countries, he said during the meeting.

It is also the opposite of what they

originally said because they're like,

oh, we're busy. We're meeting with all

these different countries. We're going

to have 90 deals in 90 days. We barely

had two and one was with a surplus

country,

UK. Uh reciprocal tariffs are targeting

uh countries the White House deems bad

actors on trade. uh they face a steeper

rate in lie of the 10% global baseline.

White House said reciprocal tariff rate

won't apply to products hit by sectoral

tariffs.

Uh however, some of these are going to

be difficult for customs to you know

deal with and soar when when trade

actually comes through. Anyway,

interesting that you know Bessant is

basically the delay in chief man.

uh you know stocks pair gains as people

wait for their clarity on tears. You

know it is interesting when you look at

the cues they've done very well in the

face of these recent sort of new April

9th announcements. There's really been

zero panic over here. You've had these

basically flat days right around 552.

It's kind of where we sit now.

It's not bad. You you got to give it to

the stock market. The stock market just

doesn't really care right now about

Trump's tariffs. Uh, and probably won't

until we actually get some impact. But

then again, if Besson has anything to

say about it, we would just expect even

more delay.

Why not advertise these things that you

told us here? I feel like nobody else

knows about this.

We'll we'll try a little advertising and

see how it goes.

Congratulations, man. You have done so

much. People love you. People look up to

you.

Kevin Praath there, financial analyst

and YouTuber. Meet Kevin. Always great

to get your take.