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Trump's move-fast-and-break-things tariff strategy collides with reality
Trump's move-fast-and-break-things tariff strategy collides with reality

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Trump's move-fast-and-break-things tariff strategy collides with reality

President Donald Trump's move-fast-and-break-things ethos this week led to a major setback for his trade policy, leaving the White House scrambling to chart its way around a potentially devastating legal ruling. Yet with the central element of his economic agenda in jeopardy, Trump is digging in on his vow to impose steep tariffs by any means necessary — and stick it to those who question his strength and think he's bound to 'chicken out.' He and administration officials have said that negotiations with other countries will continue, are insisting they'll win their current tariff battle in court and are even preparing back-up strategies for new tariffs in case they don't. Trump's determination to move fast could slow implementation of his tariff regime. It also threatens to cost him credibility with businesses he's counting on to invest in the U.S. and world leaders whose buy-in he needs to negotiate trade deals. Still, few expect a different posture from a famously intransigent president or any second-guessing following the Wednesday ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade, which briefly halted most of the tariffs. 'I don't think that's going to stop, in any way, the administration. The president's going to try to assert his tariff authority under any avenue possible,' said Marc Short, who served as Trump's legislative affairs director and Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff during the president's first term. 'The president is not one to accept defeat. He certainly didn't in 2020. It's not like because he had a bad court ruling he's going to turn his back on this.' Trump and his top lieutenants see the speed with which he is moving to enact not just trade policy but his entire agenda as a feature, not a bug. Trade adviser Peter Navarro, who has been with Trump since his first term, often refers to the pace as 'Trump time,' and other senior White House staff members frequently chalk up any inconsistency or volatility in the president's policymaking approach to his dealmaking acumen. 'We have to act fast,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon. 'We have to be fast and nimble.' And Trump may be especially keen on refuting the notion that he is weak after the moniker TACO, or 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' caught on among Wall Street traders, said one Trump ally outside the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly. "I don't think Trump can back down now, mainly because of this TACO theme," the person said. "He's clearly super irritated by it and it's like a challenge to his very manhood now.' European leaders have continued to chafe at the U.S.'s erratic approach to trade, a preview of what Trump might face at the G7 summit next month in Canada as he arrives with a slightly less-firm negotiating position. Still, the president has shown no inkling that he plans to back away from tariffs, which he's often called the 'most beautiful word' in the English language. Inside the West Wing, aides downplayed the legal whiplash as a minor stumbling block rather than a major threat to a trade policy seen as increasingly central to the president's economic legacy. And while they bristled at the TACO-centric talk, there was no expectation that Trump would veer off his maximalist trade push. 'He's been consistent on tariffs and trade since the 1980s,' said a White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. 'He's not firm on this because somebody made a taco meme and it's going viral.' Administration officials are readying backup plans should the broad set of levies they have placed on U.S. trading partners be again put on hold in court, which trade attorneys and others around the administration expect when an appeals court revisits the matter in June. Among them is a mechanism that would allow it to quickly impose tariffs without congressional approval or a more burdensome evidence-gathering and review process, according to two people familiar with discussions about the administration's trade strategy, granted anonymity to discuss strategy, one of several under consideration, would allow the president to replace existing 10 percent across-the-board tariffs on countries with levies of up to 15 percent, but only for six months. After that, Trump would need Congress' approval to extend them. 'It's important to understand that the president's trade team has been thinking about these legal tools for years, right? We have a lot of folks on TV and the internet who've been thinking about it for about six minutes,' said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during an interview on CNBC Friday morning. 'So, of course, these are things that we've been considering and talking about for a very long time. All these things are on the table.' But so-called Section 122 tariffs — named for the part of the Trade Act that outlines them — have never been tested in court, meaning the administration could find itself stymied once again. In order to move quickly to enact the so-called Liberation Day tariffs, the White House leaned on emergency powers in a federal law known as IEEPA, an approach that a federal court on Wednesday said exceeded his legal authority. 'Whether you move forward under IEEPA or a different authority, the president has made clear that tariffs are a central plank of his economic agenda and he is going to use the leverage the tariffs create to drive better outcomes for the U.S.,' said Everett Eissenstat, who served as deputy director of the National Economic Council and a key trade adviser in Trump's first term. 'Whether this tool is the tool or there's another tool, tariff authority, he's going to move forward.' But even Trump allies fear that those in the White House aren't doing enough to counsel the president on his best options, leaning into his desire to move quickly without presenting him with a full suite of more durable strategies. 'Whether you're for tariffs or not, it's pretty clear the president doesn't have unilateral authority to raise taxes,' said Stephen Moore, an outside economic adviser to Trump who has long been skeptical of the administration's go-it-alone trade approach. "It's pretty clear that at some point Congress is going to have to vote on tariff policy." As advisers mulled strategies to see their way through the thicket of looming legal challenges, Trump sought to demonstrate resolve. After a long social media post on Thursday night blasting the International Court of Trade and a ruling that he said 'would completely destroy Presidential Power,' Trump continued posting on Friday morning with a broadside aimed at Chinese President Xi Jinping. Claiming that his drastic reduction of the 145 percent tariffs against Beijing was a matter of saving China from 'grave economic danger,' Trump asserted that it 'HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US.' Greer attributed the president's frustration to the Chinese 'slow-rolling their compliance' with the agreement hashed out earlier this month. And in perhaps the clearest sign of the president's defensiveness in the face of Wall Street criticism, Trump opened a long, freewheeling Oval Office press conference on Friday afternoon by directing an aide to position an iPad on the Resolute Desk from which he played a clip of CNBC's Rick Santelli — whose 2009 rant gave birth to the Tea Party movement — praising his economic record. As the clip played, Trump raised his eyebrows and nodded at the journalists and aides positioned in front of him. 'Not bad, right?' Trump said when the clip finished playing, as departing adviser Elon Musk implored people in the room to applaud.

Trump plots next move with record-breaking $600 MILLION political war chest
Trump plots next move with record-breaking $600 MILLION political war chest

Daily Mail​

time23-05-2025

  • Business
  • Daily Mail​

Trump plots next move with record-breaking $600 MILLION political war chest

Between a barrage of executive orders, foreign trips and norm-shattering proclamations, Donald Trump has also been busy raking in cash. The president has amassed a war chest of at least $600 million in political donations heading into the midterm elections, according to three people familiar with the matter. It's an unprecedented sum in modern politics, particularly for a lame-duck president who is barred by the U.S. Constitution from running again. Trump is keeping an aggressive fundraising schedule with the ultimate goal of raising $1 billion or more to back his agenda and hold the House and Senate next November, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal details of the fundraising efforts. The preoccupation with fundraising might seem highly unusual for a president who was notably averse to dialing for dollars when he first ran. But according to people familiar with his thinking, it makes perfect sense: By amassing money, Trump amasses power. Trump is eager to reverse the tide of Democrats routinely outraising GOP candidates and wants to maximize his own impact as president. Any money left over after his term could help him maintain enormous influence over the Republican Party, cementing his status as its most influential kingmaker - and potential patron - through 2028 and beyond. 'It's leverage,' said Marc Short, who served as Trump's director of legislative affairs during his first term and later as Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff. 'It's a reflection of the power that he still holds.' The day after winning November's election, Trump began calling top staff with a surprising plan, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations. He wanted to start raising money again, immediately, not just for the transition and his inauguration, but for political committees that would demonstrate his clout throughout his second term. Trump made calls to donors himself. One of the people described the message as 'double up.' If a donor had given $1 million before the election, Trump wanted another $1 million now. People in Trump's orbit describe him as someone with a strong sense of timing, and he knew that his influence was at its peak right after winning his comeback campaign. He had yet to make any personnel or policy decisions that could alienate key constituencies, and there was no shortage of people who wanted to get on board with the victorious team. He has continued raising money at a rapid pace while president, headlining a series of high-dollar fundraisers, including a $1.5 million-a-head event on May 5 at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia for 'crypto and AI innovators,' and a pair of 'candlelight dinners' at his Mar-a-Lago in Florida on April 4 and March 1. Democrats and campaign finance watchdogs have long complained about Trump's blending of official and campaign business. Many of the attendees have potential business before the federal government. But a conservative Supreme Court and Republicans who control Congress have for years weakened campaign finance rules. The money is spread across a number of different committees, including MAGA Inc., Trump´s longtime super PAC, and Securing American Greatness, a nonprofit 501(c)(4) that earlier this month began airing a commercial backing Trump's economic agenda and encouraging the passage of his tax plan 'to get our economy back on track.' The operation is being overseen by Chris LaCivita, Trump's 2024 co-campaign manager, and Tony Fabrizio, the president´s longtime pollster. There are also other entities, including Never Surrender, Trump's renamed leadership PAC, and outside groups like the Elon Musk-backed Building America's Future, which LaCivita and Fabrizio have also joined as senior advisers. There's also the fundraising for Trump's eventual presidential library and the nearly $240 million raised for his inauguration festivities. One of the goals of the groups is to back Trump's agenda and help push his legislative priorities through Congress. Securing American Greatness plans to spend more than $10 million on its ad, which has been airing across the country. Most, however, is being held in reserve as they prepare to spend big in the 2026 primaries and midterms, with a particular focus on holding and expanding Republicans' majority in the House. Aides are eyeing advertising, rallies and travel to back favored candidates. They may also challenge incumbent Republicans who have crossed the president or failed to back his agenda. Trump has made clear that he intends to play an outsized role in next year's midterm elections and has already begun issuing a flurry of endorsements in races across the country. In 2018, Republicans lost control of the House in his first term to Democrats who went on to block much of Trump's agenda and then impeached him twice, first in 2019 over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former President Joe Biden, and then for his role in the Capitol insurrection after he lost the 2020 election. Trump, according to people familiar with his thinking, is particularly focused on avoiding another impeachment and maintaining his power through the end of his second term. 'I'm going to be very active,' Trump said of his plans for the midterms in a recent interview on 'Meet the Press,' where he noted he's 'raised a lot of money for congressmen and senators that I think are really good people.' Trump and his aides are aware that the party in power typically loses seats in the midterms. But they hope that by ramping up spending before Democrats, they can break that trend. 'We're not going to let that be a self-fulfilling prophecy,' Trump said at the annual National Republican Congressional Committee President´s Dinner last month. He is also using official levers of power against Democrats ahead of the midterms, including with an executive order demanding immediate changes to how elections are run. He ordered the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the fundraising platform that has supercharged Democratic campaigns. It remains to be seen how much Trump will ultimately spend on other candidates. The president has a long history of being stingy with his money, choosing instead to wield his influence by bestowing endorsements and staging rallies that energize the Republican base. In 2022, as Trump prepared to run for president again, Republicans repeatedly griped that he was hoarding money for himself and not spending more on his endorsed candidates. In the end, MAGA Inc. spent $19 million during the 2022 midterms, mostly opposing Democrats, including $3.4 million targeting now Pennsylvania's John Fetterman, $3 million opposing Arizona's Mark Kelly, and $3.4 million against Georgia's Raphael Warnock. All three won their Senate races against Trump-favored candidates. That sum was far eclipsed by the $260 million spent by the Congressional Leadership Fund and the $290 million spent by the Senate Leadership Fund, the campaign arms of House and Senate Republicans. This time around, however, one of the people familiar with his operation said that they would not be surprised if Trump's groups end up outspending them. Those who think Trump will be more generous say he has little else to do with the cash, even as he muses publicly about trying to run for a third term in defiance of the Constitution's 22nd Amendment. Others are more skeptical. At the National Republican Senate Committee, for instance, staff have emphasized to incumbents that they are expected to build their own professional operations, with sufficient staff and infrastructure, so they won´t need to rely on the president or other outside groups for help.

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