Steven Woldenberg

So lots of surprises all around.

So I think we'll learn more after a few years.

I think that our trading partners, like domestic economists, were caught off guard by the size of the increases, and they didn't really have plans in place to go ahead and put in place punitive measures.

Donald, they point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.

We don't intend to give up.

We're Australian.

Also, the United States has a massive export market, and this is something that President Trump, I think, recognized from the outset.

And we do have a fair amount of leverage over our trading partners.

And so it just takes time for them to put in place alternatives to trading with the United States.

I think that when 2026 closes and if we get into 2027, we'll probably see more punitive measures and more shifts in trading patterns away from the United States if these tariffs stay in place.

Yeah, so that's a tough question because one would have to ask, why were the tariffs put in place in the first place?

And the messaging out of the Trump administration is a little muddled.

Sometimes you hear that they put in place tariffs in order to reshore supply chains or to build up American manufacturing.

Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.

Sometimes they say, well, we put in place the tariffs temporarily as an incentive to get our trading partners to the table.

Because what they've done to us, other countries, what they've done, they almost put us out of business.

I think that's probably more justification to that explanation because we did see trading partners come to the table at least to put in place frameworks, but not necessarily trade agreements.

The third thing the Trump administration said they were putting the tariffs in place for was to increase revenue and to offset this $4.2 trillion cost of their signature bill.

So after this kicks in,

Our country is going to be a rocket ship economically.