President Donald Trump is pushing senior advisers to go bigger on tariff policy as they prepare for what the White House has called “Liberation Day,” the April 2 date he has set for a major escalation in his global trade war, four people familiar with the matter said.
Although many of his allies on Wall Street and Capitol Hill have urged the White House to take a more conciliatory approach, Trump has continued to press for aggressive measures to fundamentally transform the U.S. economy, the people said.
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Trump’s advisers are in intensive deliberations about the exact scope of the import duties to be imposed, which officials have described as affecting trillions of dollars worth of trade.
The option viewed as most likely, publicly outlined by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this month, would set tariffs on products from the 15 percent of countries the administration deems the worst U.S. trading partners, which account for almost 90 percent of imports. Trump has also moved forward with other tariffs that apply to imports from every country, but only on specific sectors. Trump applied 25 percent tariffs to all automobile imports on Wednesday and has suggested similar measures for the pharmaceutical and lumber industries, among others.
These proposals have led to a drop in the stock market and, economists say, raised the risks of a U.S. recession.
But Trump continues to muse to advisers that his administration should continue to escalate the trade measures and has in recent days revived the idea of a universal tariff that would apply to most imports, regardless of their country of origin, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.
In public and private, the president has said tariffs represent a win-win that will bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States and fill federal coffers with trillions of dollars in new revenue. He has also said he thinks he made a mistake in allowing advisers to talk him out of bigger tariffs during his first term, the people said, and that he thinks a single, simple duty on most imports could help prevent exemptions from weakening their impact. It’s unclear how seriously that proposal is being considered.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment.
The discussions reflect the central role Trump thinks tariffs play in cementing his legacy. Trump has publicly discussed the benefits of import taxes, characterizing “tariffs” as the “most beautiful” word in the dictionary and saying 19th-century tariffs led to the peak of the nation’s prosperity. Some allies have even mused about pushing to make the April 2 anniversary of the tariffs a federal holiday next year.
“Instead of Trump’s Birthday, make ‘Liberation Day’ a national holiday to honor the jobs, skills, and trade that returned to America and her workers,” Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s chief strategist during his first term, told The Washington Post.
The deliberations come as concerns deepen among congressional Republicans, foreign allies and investors about Trump’s global trade wars. All three major stock indexes fell sharply Friday, which many analysts attributed in part to tariff escalation and in part to related inflation fears.
Trump has said April 2 will bring “reciprocal” trade tariffs, which he and his advisers have largely described as having the U.S. match the tariff rates trading partners charge on U.S. exports.
“There’s still a lot of options still on the table. They are considering everything and trying very hard to make the idea of a reciprocal tariff both understandable to the American public and effective,” said Wilbur Ross, Trump’s commerce secretary during his first term. “They are quite correctly exploring every alternative in the hope they come to the best possible solution.”
The discussions reflect the inherent contradictions in some of Trump’s trade promises – and have revealed the tensions among his allies over his economic policy priorities.
Traditional conservatives who have aligned themselves with Trump have been happy to applaud the tariffs as a bargaining chip – designed to force concessions from allies or trading partners, and then removed. This is the approach many congressional Republicans, whose top priority is extending the 2017 tax cuts, want the president to take. It also reflects a pattern Trump frequently followed in his first term.
Trump, however, has repeatedly said that tariffs should be an ongoing source of federal revenue – which would require them to be permanent, not subject to broader negotiations that could wipe them away. Other Trump allies want him to use tariffs to create long-term incentives for companies to onshore domestic production, regardless of the trade deals he reaches with overseas partners. Luring companies to move supply chains and factories to the United States, which would involve significant investments and big changes to their logistics, also probably requires the tariffs to be permanent, but might lead to a major downturn on Wall Street.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump spoke broadly enough about his intentions that each of these camps were able to believe he would ultimately do what they hoped. But as his ambitions begin to become reality, the differences between these visions are becoming clearer.
“At some point they’re going to have to choose a strategy, because several of these stated goals are in contradiction with each other,” said Erica York, an economist with the Tax Foundation, a center-right think tank. “You can’t have a tariff for everything and everyone – in time, they will have to reveal what the real purpose is.”
Trump, for now at least, appears to be trying to demonstrate that tariffs can accomplish several goals simultaneously. He said on Wednesday that new tariffs on automobile imports would last the duration of his term, and the White House said they would raise $100 billion. On Friday, speaking to reporters, he expressed openness to cutting deals with trading partners that fall under the tariffs. Advisers say he views either outcome – a permanent tariff, or a deal in which the U.S. extracts concessions – as a victory.
In an interview with NBC posted on Saturday, Trump said he “couldn’t care less” if carmakers raised prices as a result of the tariffs. “I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American-made cars. We have plenty,” Trump said.
He also insisted that the new duties would be permanent. “The world has been ripping off the United States for the last 40 years and more. And all we’re doing is being fair, and frankly, I’m being very generous,” Trump said.
But some Republican lawmakers have grown particularly uneasy about projections that suggest growth will be lower in the second quarter of this year because of tariffs, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations with members of Congress. Others are wary that the tariffs risk complicating the GOP’s focus on quickly passing an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, most of which will expire at the end of this year if no action is taken.
“We’re trying to steer Trump away from some of these protectionist tariffs – the steel and aluminum tariffs, for example, are not very effective. If you want to save manufacturing jobs, this is not the way to do it,” said Stephen Moore, a longtime ally of Trump’s who is co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, which supports the tax cuts. “There’s danger all the tariff stuff is drowning out the tax stuff.”
Republicans in Congress remain loyal to the president but are growing increasingly concerned about the economic fallout. Some Republican senators expressed concerns during a lunch Tuesday with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about the uncertainty over the tariffs, according to Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota). Greer responded that he thought there would be more certainty after April 2 and that Trump’s approach was based on reciprocity and fairness, Hoeven said.
North Dakota farmers have not been hurt by the tariffs Trump has imposed to date, Hoeven said, but they are concerned about the potential effect of new ones. When Trump put tariffs on Chinese imports during his first term, his administration sent $23 billion to farmers hurt by the ensuing trade war – and Hoeven said he had already spoken with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins about getting more aid if needed.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) said he was highly concerned about next week’s tariffs. He has heard from manufacturers and other constituents worried about them and has conveyed those concerns to the White House, he said. He described the tariffs as a double-edged sword: “They have a purpose, but they can do some great harm as well.”
“There’s a level of unease, but I think generally giving this president the benefit of the doubt because he’s done some pretty good things,” Johnson added.
Republicans are more likely to view tariffs as a temporary cudgel to force other countries to change their trade policies than as a way to pay for tax cuts and other Trump priorities.
“I don’t see it as a revenue-raiser,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) said. “But I do see it as a way to bring jobs back into the U.S. economy.”
But some trade skeptics see a negotiated outcome that results in lower tariffs as reminiscent of the conventional trade liberalization approach that they blame for hollowing out American manufacturing communities. Instead of getting other nations to lower their trade barriers, these groups want the U.S. to protect its manufacturers by raising tariffs and discouraging imports. The nonpartisan Coalition for a Prosperous America, for instance, has called on the White House to impose an across-the-board 18 percent tariff on most goods.
“A reciprocal tariff system presented as a temporary negotiating tool to encourage other countries to lower their barriers runs directly counter to the president’s desire to rebuild America’s industrial base,” said Nick Iacovella, the group’s executive vice president.
Trump appears to be sympathetic to this approach, at least in part. He has talked about tariffs as causing short-term pain for the U.S. economy, suggesting they will not be quickly removed as part of a broader negotiation. But to what extent that view gets incorporated into policy remains to be seen.
“LIBERATION DAY IN AMERICA IS COMING, SOON,” the president posted on Truth Social at 1:39 a.m. Thursday. “FOR YEARS WE HAVE BEEN RIPPED OFF BY VIRTUALLY EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, BOTH FRIEND AND FOE. BUT THOSE DAYS ARE OVER.”
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David J. Lynch contributed to this report.
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