On Sunday, President Donald Trump once again ratcheted up his destructive and nonsensical trade war, saying that the outrageously high “Liberation Day” tariff rates he announced in April will be put back in place for countries that do not reach trade deals before his arbitrary 90-day pause deadline expires on July 9.
“I am pleased to announce that the UNITED STATES TARIFF Letters, and/or Deals, with various Countries from around the World, will be delivered starting 12:00 P.M. (Eastern), Monday, July 7th. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DONALD J. TRUMP, President of The United States of America,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Letters” is how the administration refers to notices of tariff rates “and/or deals.”
This confirms a statement Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made on CNN earlier in the day when he said that if countries “don’t move things along, then on August 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level.”
Trump also took his tariff threat a step further, saying in a subsequent Truth Social post that, “Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy.” The 11 nations in the BRICS alliance have threatened to make their own form of currency, which Trump is seeking to stop.
Of course, who the heck knows what will happen with tariff rates, as Trump on Sunday appeared confused by reporters’ questions about if and when the “Liberation Day” tariffs would go back into effect when the 90-day pause expires.
“Do the tariff rates change at all on July 9th or do they change on August 1st?” a reporter asked Trump.
“What are you talking about?” Trump replied.
When the reporter pressed again about what day the tariffs would go back into place, Trump responded with more word salad that didn’t answer the question.
“They’re going to be tariffs. The tariffs are going to be the tariffs. I think we’ll have most countries done by July 9th. Yeah. Either a letter or a deal,” Trump said.
Ultimately, if Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs—which were not only ridiculously high but were so shoddily done that even countries like the uninhabited Heard Island and McDonald Islands received tariffs—go back into effect, it will have horrible consequences for the U.S. economy.
When he first announced the tariffs in April, it sent the stock market into a tailspin, as investors worried that Trump’s trade policy would plunge the United States into a recession.
But as it became clear that Trump almost always pulls a TACO (which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out), investors no longer responded with fear to Trump’s tariff announcements, as they assume he will reverse them before they cause too much harm to the economy.
Indeed, the stock market on Monday has barely reacted to Trump’s latest tariff threats, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 barely down.
Still, even at the current 10% tariff rate Trump has placed on nearly every country in the world, inflation has ticked up slightly and the private sector job market is weakening.
If Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs do go into place, economists say the bottom will fall out.
“‘We haven’t seen price hikes yet’ is not the win some folks think it is. Our data are backward looking, and many of the worst tariffs are in the midst of a soon-to-end 90 day pause. Economic gravity still applies: Tariffs raise costs, and someone’s going to pay,” economist Justin Wolfers told CNN.