Trump considers pausing auto tariffs as world economy endures whiplash
ADVERTISEMENT
'I'm looking at something to help some of the car companies with it,' Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. The Republican president said automakers needed time to relocate production from Canada, Mexico and other places, "And they need a little bit of time because they're going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I'm talking about things like that.'
Matt Blunt, president of American Automotive Policy Council, an association representing Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, said the group shared Trump's goals of increased domestic production.
'There is increasing awareness that broad tariffs on parts could undermine our shared goal of building a thriving and growing American auto industry, and that many of these supply chain transitions will take time," Blunt said.
Trump's statement hinted at yet another round of reversals on tariffs as Trump's onslaught of import taxes has panicked financial markets and raised deep concerns from Wall Street economists about a possible recession.
When Trump announced the 25% auto tariffs on March 27, he described them as 'permanent.' His hard lines on trade have become increasingly blurred as he has sought to limit the possible economic and political blowback from his policies.
Last week, after a bond market sell-off pushed up interest rates on US debt, Trump announced that for 90 days his broader tariffs against dozens of countries would instead be set at a baseline 10% to give time for negotiations.
At the same time, Trump increased the import taxes on China to 145%, only to temporarily exempt electronics from some of those tariffs by having those goods charged at a 20% rate.
'I don't change my mind, but I'm flexible,' Trump said on Monday.
Market uncertainty
Trump's flexibility has also fuelled a sense of uncertainty and confusion about his intentions and end goals. The S&P 500 stock index was up 0.8% Monday, but it's still down nearly 8% this year. Interest rates on 10-year US Treasury notes were elevated at roughly 4.4%.
Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist for the Northern Trust global financial firm, said the whiplash had been so great that he might have to 'get fitted for a neck brace.'
Tannenbaum warned in an analysis: 'Damage to consumer, business, and market confidence may already be irreversible.'
Maroš Šefčovič, the European commissioner for trade and economic security, posted on X on Monday that on behalf of the European Union he engaged in trade negotiations with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
"The EU remains constructive and ready for a fair deal — including reciprocity through our 0-for-0 tariff offer on industrial goods and the work on non-tariff barriers," Šefčovič said.
The US president also said that he spoke with Apple CEO Tim Cook and 'helped' him recently. Many Apple products, including its popular iPhone, are assembled in China.
Apple didn't respond to a Monday request for comment about the latest swings in the Trump administration's tariff pendulum.
ADVERTISEMENT
Even if the exemptions granted on electronics last week turn out to be short-lived, the temporary reprieve gives Apple some breathing room to figure out ways to minimise the trade war's impact on its iPhone sales in the US.
That prospect helped lift Apple's stock price 2% on Monday. Still, the stock gave up some of its earlier 7% increase as investors processed the possibility that the iPhone could still be jolted by more tariffs on Chinese-made products in the weeks ahead.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said Apple is clearly in a far better position than it was a week ago, but he warned there's still 'mass uncertainty, chaos, and confusion about the next steps ahead.'
One possible workaround Apple may be examining during the current tariff reprieve is how to shift even more of its iPhone production from its longtime hubs in China to India, where it began expanding its manufacturing while Trump waged a trade war during his first term as president.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Trump administration has suggested that its tariffs had isolated China as the US engaged in talks with other countries.
But China is also seeking to build tighter relationships in Asia with nations stung by Trump's tariffs. China's leader, Xi Jinping, on Monday met in Hanoi with Vietnam's Communist Party General Secretary To Lam with the message that no one wins in trade wars.
Asked about the meeting, Trump suggested the two nations were conspiring to do economic harm to the US by 'trying to figure out how do we screw the United States of America.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
an hour ago
- LeMonde
'Examining the authoritarian nationalism toward which the United States has shifted can help make sense of France's own democratic crisis'
Comparing nations can be misleading. While Western democracies have much in common, the weights of history, culture and tradition are often underestimated. American political life, marked by federalism and the ubiquity of religion, is fundamentally different from that of France, which is centralized and secular. Nonetheless, examining the authoritarian nationalism toward which the United States has shifted can help make sense of France's own democratic crisis. In his new book, Le Miroir américain. Enquête sur la radicalisation des droites et l'avenir de la gauche ("The American Mirror: An Investigation into the Radicalization of the Right and the Future of the Left"), French-American journalist Cole Stangler argues that certain trends observed in both countries are comparable and could ultimately result in disasters on a similar scale. Chief among them is deindustrialization. Page after page, Stangler paints a portrait of small towns, such as Weirton, West Virginia, where a once-thriving steel industry has been devastated by international competition, leaving residents steeped in resentment and anger. "This town is finished, we're just totally screwed," one local resident told him. On Donald Trump, she added: "Honestly, I don't give a damn, I'm going to vote for the criminal."
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Trump warns of 'troops everywhere' in LA if immigration raid protests escalate
Security forces clashed with protesters outside a detention center in Los Angeles on Sunday as National Guard troops deployed by President Donald Trump fanned out across the city following two days of unruly protests over raids by immigration agents. Trump on Sunday vowed the troops would ensure "very strong law and order," while appearing to leave the door open to deploying soldiers in other cities. The US military said 300 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team had been sent to three separate locations in the greater Los Angeles area, and were "conducting safety and protection of federal property & personnel." Helmeted troops in camouflage gear and carrying guns were stationed at a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, where they joined Department of Homeland Security forces. Pepper spray and tear gas were fired into a small crowd -- including journalists -- as forces moved protesters back to allow a convoy of vehicles to enter the detention center. Trump, asked about the use of troops, appeared to leave the door open to a more widespread deployment in other parts of the country. "You have violent people, and we are not going to let them get away with it," he told reporters. "I think you're going to see some very strong law and order."" Responding to a question about invoking the Insurrection Act -- which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force -- Trump said: "We're looking at troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country." The deployment in California -- the first over the head of a state governor since the Civil Rights era -- was "purposefully inflammatory," Governor Gavin Newsom said. "Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County -- not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis," Newsom posted on X Sunday. "He's hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful." Newsom's warning came after Los Angeles was rocked by two days of confrontations that saw federal agents firing flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants. 'Intimidation' Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback by Newsom and other local officials against the National Guard deployment. "I have no concern about that at all," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC's "This Week", accusing Newsom of "an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary". As for threats by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday to send in active-duty Marines on top of the Guard troops, Johnson said he did not see that as "heavy-handed." "We have to be prepared to do what is necessary," he argued. Demonstrators told AFP the purpose of the troops was not necessarily to keep order. "I think it's an intimidation tactic," Thomas Henning said. "These protests have been peaceful. There's no one trying to do any sort of damage right now and yet you have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our first amendment rights." Estrella Corral said demonstrators were angry that hard-working migrants who have done nothing wrong were being snatched by masked immigration agents. "This is our community, and we want to feel safe," she told AFP. "Trump deploying the National Guard is ridiculous. I think he's escalating, he's trying to make a show for his agenda." US Democratic governors on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump's deployment of troops to quell protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, saying that authority should rest with state leadership. "President Trump's move to deploy California's National Guard is an alarming abuse of power," the governors said in a joint statement. "It's important we respect the executive authority of our country's governors to manage their National Guards." Protesters rally against immigration agents for second day in LA 01:59 'Good men and women' The National Guard -- a reserve military -- is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities. Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on undocumented migrants -- who he has likened to "monsters" and "animals" -- since taking office in January. Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump's immigration policies so far. A CBS News poll taken before the Los Angeles protests showed a slight majority of Americans still approved of the immigration crackdown. Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Sunday defended migrants living north of the border. "Mexicans living in the United States are good men and women, honest people who went to the United States to seek a better life for themselves and to support their families. They are not criminals! They are good men and women!" she said.
LeMonde
3 hours ago
- LeMonde
National Guard faces off with protesters hours after arriving in Los Angeles on Trump's orders
Members of the National Guard faced off with protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 8, and tear gas was fired at a growing crowd that gathered outside a federal complex hours after the federal troops arrived in the city on President Donald Trump's orders. The confrontation broke out in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, as a group of demonstrators shouted insults at members of the guard lined shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields. There did not appear to be any arrests. Other law enforcement officials are also on scene, and it was not immediately clear who fired the tear gas. Around 300 National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles early Sunday following clashes in recent days between protesters and federal immigration agents. Deployment follows days of protest The deployment followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city South of the city, and neighboring Compton. As federal agents set up a staging area Saturday near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators attempted to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls. Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed above 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement. The deployment of the National Guard came over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom, who accused Trump of a "complete overreaction" designed to create a spectacle of force. Trump says there will be 'very strong law and order' Trump has framed the move as a necessary response to Newsom's and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass's failure to swiftly contain the unrest. In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is "a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." He said he had authorized the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard. Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were "violent people" in Los Angeles "and they're not gonna get away with it." He said there will be "very strong law and order." Trump was asked if he plans to send US troops to Los Angeles and he said, "We're gonna have troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country. We're not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden." Trump didn't elaborate. Defense secretary threatens to deploy active-duty Marines 'if violence continues' In a statement Sunday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused California's politicians and protesters of "defending heinous illegal alien criminals at the expense of Americans' safety. Instead of rioting, they should be thanking ICE officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer." The troops included members of the California Army National Guard's 79 th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defense. In a signal of the administration's aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines "if violence continues" in the region. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the order by Trump reflected "a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism" and "usurping the powers of the United States Congress."
