This is a preview of Newsweek’s weekly newsletter, Inside Trump Policy.
Good afternoon,
President Donald Trump took the podium in the White House Rose Garden before a crowd of supporters to announce a sweeping new set of tariffs, saying: „Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years, but it is not going to happen anymore.“
Holding a large chart, Trump ran down a list of reciprocal tariffs targeting dozens of countries. China was hit hard, facing a new 34% tariff on top of existing 20% rates.
„For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike“, Trump said. „The new tariffs will raise trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt, and it’ll all happen very quickly.“
The reaction over the next 36 hours was swift. Thursday, global stocks slumped and U.S. stocks suffered the worst day since 2020. Then early Friday, China announced it will impose reciprocal 34% tariffs on all imports from the U.S. beginning April 10.
The baseline U.S. tariffs of 10% are set to take effect on April 5, with reciprocal tariffs following on April 9.but will they? Trump said Thursday that he would be open to negotiating with other countries for „phenomenal“ offerings. We saw this happen with Canada and Mexico—Trump spoke with then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Claudia Sheinbaum, agreements were reached and tariffs were delayed.
Trump believes tariffs will restore the U.S. economy, but there’s no shortage of commentary and surging betting odds over growing fears of a U.
