Jake Tapper Presses White House Economic Advisor On The 'Capricious Whim' Of Trump's Tariff Policies

Forbes Breaking News

During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett, was asked about President Trump's switch-up on his tariff policies.

Transcript

00:00Okay, let's talk about the overall investment environment.

00:04Nine days ago, President Trump announced to the whole world

00:07that those were the rules for doing business in America going forward.

00:11The tariffs were here to stay. His policies were not going to change.

00:14I'm just quoting him from his truth social messages.

00:17And then, of course, on Wednesday, he issued this 90-day pause on most of the tariffs.

00:21And in his own words, it was because the bond markets were getting queasy and yippy.

00:25So here's what one small business owner told CNN about the impact

00:29that this whiplash is having on her.

00:34A pause is better than no pause,

00:37but the uncertainty is still really chaotic for a small business like me.

00:40And now, even if I move out of China,

00:42how am I going to be certain that if I place an order today,

00:45I won't find a new tariff tomorrow?

00:47This up and down is just something as a small business I can't pivot to.

00:50So that's Sarah Wells from Sarah Wells Bags.

00:53Well, what do you say to small business owners or even big business owners

00:55who say they're having difficulty making long-term business decisions

00:59because the country seems right now to be run by capricious whim?

01:02Oh, I don't think at all it's run by capricious whim.

01:06The way that I would think about it is that in the previous administration,

01:10you can sort of say, if you're thinking about it in the football analogy,

01:13is that they were running out the clock.

01:15And that what's going on now in the Trump administration

01:17is across a wide array of policy areas, we're in a two-minute offense.

01:22And the two-minute offense is pushing, as you've seen,

01:25the reconciliation bill through so that we get tax relief for American people,

01:28deregulation, and, of course, trade policy.

01:32Now, on the trade policy, the whole point of the trade policy

01:34is to address the national emergency that we're too dependent

01:38on foreign products in the U.S.,

01:41especially if we were at a time of conflict.

01:44And we're doing something about that.

01:45And the reciprocal act was basically,

01:47guys, if you come to the table and negotiate us with us

01:50and treat us the same way we treat you,

01:53then you'll get your rate really low.

01:56And so right now, 130 countries, 130 countries have responded

02:00and we're negotiating with them,

02:01and they've got their rate down to 10%.

02:04And so really, it's kind of almost a two-world system.

02:07There's a process about China,

02:09and that's very, very nascent, if at all,

02:12and then the process for everybody else.

02:14So the process for everybody else is orderly.

02:16It's clear.

02:17People are coming to town with great, great offers.

02:21We've got Japan, Korea, India.

02:24I was just talking to the foreign minister of India,

02:27and everything is moving forward very quickly.

02:30And so I guess the bottom line is that the small business owner

02:34has experienced over the last few weeks

02:36the start of a process that's settling down really quite quickly.

02:39Again, 130 countries are at 10% now.

02:42So let's talk about these 130 countries,

02:43because as you know better than I do,

02:45it typically takes months, if not years, to negotiate trade deals.

02:50Trump's signature trade deal from his first term,

02:53a great achievement, according to both Democrats and Republicans,

02:57NAFTA II, or the USMCA, that took 15 months to put together.

03:01How exactly are you and your team and the USTR team,

03:04how are you going to negotiate deals that actually deliver

03:08for the American people with more than 100 countries

03:11in less than three months?

03:13Oh, yeah.

03:14You know, first of all, just a little bit of more clarification.

03:17One of the things I like to ask people is,

03:19who's the chairman of the National Economic Council?

03:21And then everybody thinks, oh, it's you, Kevin.

03:23Well, no, I'm the director.

03:24The chairman of the National Economic Council is President Trump.

03:28And so what President Trump does is he sets out a path for everybody,

03:32for Howard Lutnick, Scott Bessett, and for Jameson,

03:35on how they would move forward on a particular policy matter.

03:38And then it's my job as director to make sure

03:40that the president's wishes are being fulfilled.

03:42I'm kind of there to help everybody succeed.

03:44And I can tell you, I've been watching the people who are assigned

03:47to different assignments working really, really hard

03:50on getting trade deals forward over the last many weeks.

03:54And so one of the things that we were thinking about this week

03:57was that we had a few of these deals that are so close to baked

04:00that we could announce that we have a deal in principle.

04:03You're right that getting the fine print out would maybe take a little longer.

04:07But we were thinking about announcing a deal in principle even this week.

04:10But then we were making so much progress so rapidly that the president decided

04:14to instead, instead of having one or two things right now,

04:17just go for the 10 percent pause.

04:18And I think it was the right answer,

04:20given the massive amount of momentum that we've been seeing.

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