Stephanie Ruhle: What scares me most about Trump's tariff whiplash
It has been more than a week since Donald Trump's trade disaster began. I have spent that week speaking with investors, both at home and abroad, and what I feel most at this moment is scared. I'm scared that what we are facing is a crisis in confidence — confidence in us, the United States. I'm not alone. On Friday, we found out consumer sentiment fell to its second lowest level on record going back to 1952. And, based on the conversations I've had, no one can tell me exactly what might restore that confidence — at least not right now.
Yes, the markets rallied Wednesday, but that is only because we avoided, at least temporarily, some of the sweeping tariffs Trump was set to implement across the globe. But, quickly, reality set in. We still have the rest of his tariffs to worry about. Markets are still shaky — both the bond and stock markets — because the basis on which the administration is negotiating trade is not rooted in truth.
For those who believe countries were scrambling to make a deal because they were so panicked by these enormous tariffs: What is that deal? What do you think the likes of Vietnam can do to erase its trade deficit with the United States? The answer is that it can't. And if you want to onshore all of our manufacturing, that will take trillions of dollars and 20 years.
For our allies in the West, they are certainly not rushing to partner up with us — not with a president who goes on national television and brags about how other countries are 'kissing my a--.'
It's safe to say the perch that we and our American exceptionalism sat on, even a few months ago, has certainly been lowered. We have an agriculture secretary who tells us to build chicken coops because eggs are expensive. A defense secretary sharing military secrets in a private, unsecured group chat. We're deporting people without due process. We're potentially lawlessly firing thousands of federal workers and defunding science while planning to set up a 'Crypto Strategic Reserve.' We have lost an enormous amount of credibility and trust.
But what scares me is that every investor I speak with, even those who backed the president, gives me the same message: If the bond market continues to drop, that will effectively bankrupt the country. And bankruptcy is something Trump knows a lot about.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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