The infighting inside the White House over tariffs
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Good morning. It's Wednesday, April 9th. I'm Shemita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the point system determining who gets flagged for deportation, what happens when unaccompanied minors cross the border and need a lawyer, and what to know about the upcoming deadline to get your real ID card.
But first, President Trump's latest round of tariffs went into effect overnight, bringing our total levy against China to at least 104 percent. In response, China raised its retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods to 84 percent starting Thursday. Trump acknowledged that so far his tariffs have been met with a lot of angst, but insisted that he, quote, knows what the hell he's doing. He also said he would soon impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals, lamenting that America doesn't make our own medicines. The reaction from Wall Street to Trump's tariff plan has been unequivocally negative. On Tuesday, the markets closed down for the fourth consecutive day in a row, and The Wall Street Journal reports that many CEOs are starting to break their silence, with people from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump backer Bill Ackman sharply criticizing the moves, and Republican donor and billionaire Ken Griffin calling them a huge policy mistake.
The policy has also led to some infighting inside the White House, with basically three different camps emerging. Here's how Justin Sink, a White House correspondent for Bloomberg News, described the competing schools of thought.
So on one side, the most hawkish side, you have folks like Peter Navarro and Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, who really believe that tariffs can propel manufacturing back to the United States and help sort of settle historic trade deficits between the two countries.
They're the ones who say this isn't about negotiating with other countries, that this is, as Navarro put it, quote, a national emergency triggered by trade deficits caused by a rigged system. Then in the middle, you've got Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, who says tariffs will force other countries to come to the table and offer major concessions.
And then you've got Elon Musk over the side, and he's, while a close advisor of the president, also somebody who is a businessman and whose sort of immense wealth is tied up in the stock market.
Musk, who is the world's richest man, has lost an estimated $31 billion since Trump announced his tariffs, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His company SpaceX has said new trade barriers will negatively impact how its Starlink communications service can operate in foreign countries. And although Tesla makes all of the cars it sells in the U.S. within the United States, it does get parts from other countries. And this has led to Musk and Navarro, Trump's top trade counselor, openly feuding. On X, Navarro called Musk a, quote, car assembler, not a car manufacturer, calling attention to how Teslas are made. Musk defended Tesla and called Navarro, quote, dumber than a sack of bricks. Here's Sink again.
I do think that Musk has been pretty straightforward about the fact that he does not believe in these tariffs. He does not think that they're a good idea. We have seen reporting that he brought that case to the president directly before they were announced. So I think, you know, engaging in this public spat is both him sort of genuinely expressing his opinion, but also looking to rally support behind his cause.
While this spat is taking place on social media, Trump says he's open to talking to world leaders to strike deals that he says will be better for America. Specifically, he's indicated he feels confident a deal could emerge with South Korea. He also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week. And CINC told us next week Italy's Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni will meet with Trump to talk tariffs, too. The big outlier here, though, is China.
While other countries are coming to the table, offering him new stuff, Beijing has sort of stood up and said, no, we're not playing that game. And in fact, we're going to hit you back with these tariffs.
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