'Stunning': Trump's 'game show' style tariff announcement came together in just days
President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" reciprocal tariffs plan was slapped together over a matter of a couple days, CNN's Jeff Zeleny reported on Wednesday evening.
The plan, which puts sharp new taxes on imports from around the world, even from remote and uninhabited islands, has prompted a massive plunge in stock futures and even has some Republican lawmakers revolting against the president.
"You know, when we hear the president at the top of the show, he goes through country after country after country," said anchor Erin Burnett. "They've got all these slides ready. What is so stunning from your reporting, though, seems to be that the actual plan, what those numbers were, came together very last minute for Trump."
"It was an extraordinary scene in the Rose Garden," Zeleny agreed. "You saw the president there looking at the chart reading country by country, but it almost had the feel of a game show. At one point, he even threw out a red Make America Great Again hat into the crowd, which was packed with some union workers as well as members of the cabinet and lawmakers. But it did come together, we are told, really over the last several days. There were some dissenting voices inside his administration. Some wanted a 20 percent baseline tariff, if you will, across the board. He settled on 10 percent, but then had separate reciprocal tariffs for so many of these other countries."
ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs
"But when you look at that there, this is how some of the U.S. allies and adversaries alike learned that they were going to be on this list," he continued. "They saw the president reading from this, this chart in the Rose Garden. But when you sort of step back and look at all of this, the question now is the retaliatory tariffs that are likely to follow. This is really sparking and causing alarm across the ag sector, the lumber sector, pharmaceuticals and so many more. And when you also add up these, it's not just 34 percent for China, it's actually 54 percent. The Treasury Secretary was telling reporters earlier because it's on top of the 20 percent already there for fentanyl."
"So the bottom line to all of this, it's the biggest gamble of this presidency. There's no doubt about it. It's a historic move. That is clear. Not since the Second World War has there been this type of a reordering of the global economy," Zeleny added.
Another less conspicuous but just as notable thing at Trump's speech, he continued, was who wasn't there: tech billionaire Elon Musk.
"Of course, this came on the heels of that embarrassing defeat in Wisconsin last night. I can recall him being at virtually every other major announcement. This was the first one in the Rose Garden. No sign today of Elon Musk."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
- YouTube www.youtube.com