donald trump news: ‘Trump is at the peak of not giving a…’: White House official on what went behind tariff decisions

A White House official told Washington Post that President Donald Trump is “at the peak of just not giving a f**k anymore”, explaining the rationale behind the reciprocratory tariffs that the president announced on April 2. “Bad news stories? Doesn’t give a f**k. He’s going to do what he’s going to do. He’s going to do what he promised to do on the campaign trail,” a Washington Post report quoted a White House official as saying. The report said the president was given a menu of tariff options, but he personally selected a formula to arrive at the percentage of tariffs for countries. The formula was based on two simple variables — the trade deficit with each country and the total value of its US exports, the report said.
Several rounds of meetings were held on Tuesday, the day before the announcement and Trump didn’t decide on the final plan until around 1pm Wednesday, less than three hours ahead of his Rose Garden announcement.

There were reports of internal fighting among the aides over the tariff formula but the Washington report said it was far less than the first term. “In the first term,” said a senior White House official, “everyone thought they were president.”

Trump’s tariff team: Who stands for what

Trump’s tariff team comprised Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior trade counselor; Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary; Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary; Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative; Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy; Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council; and Vice President JD Vance. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was also in the meetings. Hassett was not present for the final meeting Wednesday.
Navarro was the strongest champion of taking aggressive measures; Miller and Vance left it for the president to decide.

Trump tariffs and their aftershocks

China retaliated with a 34 per cent tariff on all US products. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing also said in a notice that it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries. Beijing announced it had filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization over the tariff issue. Trump said it was wrong of China and they panicked. He also informed that Vietnam expressed interest in reducing tariffs on the US.