Brandishing a board with a list of winners and losers, Donald Trump sold his Liberation Day tariff plan like a Hollywood game show host.
The spray-tanned president, his hair lacquered into place, gesticulated and bragged as he unveiled the numbers matching his international contestants.
Leaders from around the world watched along with the viewing public as Trump finally revealed the tariff percentages that he planned to use to enforce his trade revolution.
He even had a catchphrase – “Let’s Make America Wealthy Again.”
But the markets saw the ceremony as Who Wants to be a Millionaire in reverse as stocks tumbled in real time as the president talked in the White House Rose Garden with his Cabinet lined along the front row like a TV crowd obliged to clap in place of a free ticket.
There would undoubtedly have been gasps from some countries facing tariffs on their imports of up to 49 percent, with sighs of relief from others set at a benign 10 percent.
Among the big winters were the U.K., Chile, Colombia, Turkey, Singapore, Brazil, and Australia. In each case, Trump claims those countries charge America the same 10 percent import tariff.
The biggest loser in the Trump tariffs show was Cambodia, which will be charged a whopping 49 percent. The president considers the tariff a bargain; the White House calculates the Cambodians charge the U.S. 97 percent.
Trump complained about “foreign scavengers” who had been “ripping off” the United States for years.
“For nations that treat us badly, we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers, and other forms of cheating. And because we are being very kind ... We will charge them approximately half of what they charge us,” he said, his monologue completed to hold up his board with the final tariff scores.
But, with the benevolent smile of the best TV host, the former reality show star insisted he was being “kind” to America’s trade partners. “We’re going to start being smart, and we’re going to start being very wealthy again,” he added.
Other losers include China at 34 percent.
Again, Trump thinks his pal President Xi Jinping should be happy with the deal—the White House says China charges a 67 percent tariff on the U.S., though it remains unclear how that number is calculated.
The 34 percent, of course, is on top of the 20 percent levy he is already charging Beijing.
Other “losers’ were Thailand at 36 percent, Sri Lanka at 44 percent, and Bangladesh at 37 percent.
The European Union will be charged 20 percent even though they are said to charge the U.S. 39 percent “including currency manipulation and trade barriers.” India faces a 26 percent tariff, and Japan’s rate was set at 24 percent.
Every one of America’s 100 trading partners would be hit with at least a 10 percent tariff, according to the White House.
Early signs of trouble ahead were a slide in the stock market and a weakening dollar, with futures on the S&P 500 plunging nearly 2 percent Wednesday night.
