Trump Walks Back China Tariffs? Here’s The Latest

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Captain Caveman! yeah, Captain Caveman. A cartoon, if not familiar, late 1970s, it was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. It was almost like a spin-off cartoon, Saturday morning cartoon, kind of going along with Charlie’s Angels. And you had this caveman that the Teen Angels on thought he was a superhero, had all of these powers.

And it was kind of funny, he would pull stuff out of his beard on a regular basis. And the funny thing is, I used tease my wife. I used to call her Captain Caveman because she was always able to, still always able to pull something out of her pocketbook out of nowhere. Just what you needed. Need hand sanitizer, need a mitt, need gum, whatever it may be. My wife’s got it in her pocketbook. But anyway, we’ve got a new Captain Caveman. Different type of cave. That’s President Donald Trump. Yeah, he caved. Listen.

the right, I can’t say right, the MAGA sycophants on television, on social media are gonna spin this as some sort of genius plan, 3D, 6D, chess, how brilliant this is. Fox News today, had the headline on Fox and Friends, the art of the tariff deal. Who are you trying to kid?

I mean, honestly, people, you honestly believe this bull excrement that they’re pitching right now, that this was the plan all along? You understand some of the things that were taking place behind the scenes that we told you about on the radio show, on the podcast, farmers. Did you understand how much money Trump would have, the checks he would have had to have cut?

to farmers here in the United States because they’re the stuff that they grew and made that they were selling to various different places like China around the globe. They weren’t going to buy it anymore. yeah. Remember, what was it? What was his original thing? yeah. We’re collecting two billion dollars a day in tariffs, which was never the case. Never the case made that number up. Take a look.

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at the markets and what they’ve done since Liberation Day. Yes, Tuesday, up day, so far today, up day. We’re still about 5 % off. 5 % off the markets based upon where he, where the president was, okay, on Liberation Day, where the markets were on Liberation Day before he had that ridiculous scene.

there on the White House lawn. What a joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve expressed the fact that I’ve been, you’ve heard the anger in my voice. One of the rules, one of the rules we have as money managers, money managers is you never, ever, ever let risk lead to ruin. Never.

We have the most enviable position in the entire world because we, the dollar, is the world reserve currency.

It is the most envied position to have. Why? Why would you ever toy with that? Why would you even mess around with that?

And that’s what he did. And what we’re looking at right now is a walk back. Again, president came out yesterday, very good relationship with Xi. Well, if you had a very good relationship with Xi, okay, you could have worked something out without having to do all of this.

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I gotta be honest with you, you know, I get the email sex. Aren’t you happy the markets are up the big the past couple of days? No, I’m not happy that the markets are moving like some sort of damn penny stock. Every single day, thousand points this way, thousand points that way, 2 % this way, 3 % it’s moving like was like Bitcoin for crying out loud that you don’t want that. That’s not what attracts capital to the United States.

You understand that the type of wealth that we’ve built up here in this country because of our financial markets and the strength of our financial markets, where do you want to list? Used to be London.

London used to have, UK used to have this position. It’s US. You get listed in New York Stock Exchange?

This is where you want to be.

Why would you mess with any of that? Did an interview yesterday on EWTN, we’re doing a lot on the Catholic network, talking about something we discussed on the podcast, all of these small businesses around the country and how hurt they are based upon all of this uncertainty. And to be quite honest with you, am I relieved

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to see that Donald Trump is caving. Yeah, of course I’m really, I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled. What scares the hell out of me is I don’t know what he’s going to do tomorrow.

I don’t know what he’s gonna do tomorrow. God willing, you know, Scott Besant takes the reins when it comes to this. Maybe JD Vance as well. Have Besant and JD Vance take the reins on this because, I’m sorry, JD Vance was never behind and he’d never been behind any of this stuff in his entire career. He knows better.

And quite frankly, you I think he’s probably looking at this saying, what did I do to my political career if I’m gonna be attached to Donald Trump and his failed policies? I was a vice president under this guy and I’ve got to go along with this. Again, but he’s happy that hopefully he, you know, working out something with India, again, major, kind of, it still has a long way to go. They’re not nearly.

not nearly as advanced as China, not even the same ballpark yet, but they need to head in that direction. Stories from around the country, Mack trucks firing hundreds of workers in Pennsylvania. President Trump’s tariffs are the driving force, says the CEO. Local economy is going to lose about $260 million a year.

Again, these job losses, again, because all of a sudden orders are being canceled, businesses are uncertain. basically, the best way you want to equate what transpired over the past month is that Donald Trump engineered a COVID without a virus.

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basically engineered a COVID type of a situation where again, you’re stops and shutdowns. Now again, if you remember during COVID, you had a market sell off, but big businesses thrived. Again, they shut down the mom and pop stores, but hey, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, they could all stay open. And again, I wish all of those companies well too. I want American businesses to do well.

But if you think this is gonna work well for the economy, the overall economy, the lifeblood of this country’s economy, quite frankly, is small business owners all around the country. I live in a city.

I live in a city and yeah, the city I live in, yeah, do they have a Lowe’s? they have a Home Depot? Do they have all these things? Absolutely. You know, I drive down in Tampa, Dale Mayberry, McDill, Gandy, you know, my neighborhood, Bay to Bay, nothing but small mom and pop stores everywhere.

everywhere and they’ve been hit.

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This is what happens, this is what happens when again, you surround yourself, you surround yourself with people that kiss your ass.

shine yourself that the people that kiss your ass that won’t tell you no. This is again a little bit of a JD Vance point if you remember the whole Huthy

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thing that took place where we started bombing them again, who was the guy that was pushing back on that was JD Vance. He didn’t understand the reason why, good for him. You need to be surrounded by people that, they, get, we could phrase it to you this way. You know you have a true friend, and this is stuff I teach to my kids, you know you have people that really care about you.

that you have a true friend, people that actually care about you and where you are. These are people that will put you in your place and tell you no.

and tell you no, or tell you, you know what? You’re being an a-hole.

Cut it out, man.

We don’t have any of that. We don’t have any of that when it comes to the media. mean, shame, they want to call it conservative media. You can’t even call it that. People don’t even understand what that word means anymore. Maga media. Fox is maga media. Basically, whatever the president says, whatever he fantastic, he’s great, and they will spin it in some way, shape, matter, or form. And again,

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I’ve equated many of these pundits out there to, well, the profession, the world’s oldest profession. Yeah, yeah, basically prostitutes. They’re well-paid prostitutes. Laura Ingram makes 15 million bucks a year. Jesse Warner makes eight million bucks a year. Whatever. don’t, I, you know, I’m just saying, know, good for you. Good for you. But you’re willing to…

I mean, it’s a great paycheck. It’s a great paycheck, but you’re willing to go on and again, you have that type of an ethical bypass at birth. You’re willing to BS, lie, spin in order to make money at the expense of your fellow countrymen, the global economy. Well, what does that say about you?

Quite frankly, this is just a much more important things in life than money. And I think we’ve made that perfectly clear here on the program. Gentlemen, again, that I’ve talked about often, and if you haven’t read his books, do so. Do so. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, they call his book series, The Encherto. You’ve got Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Anti-Fragile, Skin in the Game.

some of the best books on finance, risk management and philosophy all tied into one. Okay? Might be one of the smartest guys on the planet. He calls Trump Caligolino.

He puts out, the problem with Caligolino Trump is that he’s surrounded by only sub-amateurs. Amateurs have some experience in training. The trade and tariff calculations had to be made by someone who called a former college roommate who majored in economics 40 years ago in a liberal arts school.

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Yeah, echoing what we have said here on the program. This is the latest from the Wall Street Journal of Guards, what is going on. And again, it’s fluid. It’s fluid, who knows what’s gonna happen next. The Trump administration is considering slashing its steep tariffs on Chinese imports, in some cases by more than half. And I bid to de-escalate tensions with Beijing.

that have roiled global trade and investment.

One senior White House official said the Chinese tariffs were likely to come down to between roughly 50 and 65%. Administration is also considering a tiered approach similar to the one proposed by the House Committee on China late last year. 35 % levies for items the US deems not a threat to national security, and at least 100 % for items deemed as strategic to America’s interest. The bill proposed phasing in those levies over five years.

Here we go. This is where it’s funny. This is where they have the White House spokespeople come out and they always say, President Trump has made it clear.

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Stop insulting our intelligence. He hasn’t made anything clear. Okay? He hasn’t. Clear? Yeah, about as clear as the Mohawk River for crying out loud. Upstate New Yorkers will understand that. China needs to make a deal with the United States of America when decisions on tariffs are made. They will come directly from the president. Anything else is pure speculation.

Again, he said his tariffs on China will come down, but it won’t be zero.

China said that it was open to trade talks with the United States, though it won’t negotiate under continued threats from the White House. Can you blame them?

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I mean, can you blame, where are you gonna get, know, if someone is throwing in some, you know, you’re going to negotiate, let’s say I’m going to negotiate a, I’m gonna go negotiate a price on a car, okay? And I’m going to the dealer.

And the guy selling the cars is dropping F bombs and, you know, giving threats. Am I gonna sit there and negotiate for the car despite the fact that I might need that car, I want that car? No.

home. It’s an exercise in futility. I’m going to walk the hell out the door. Again, you know, Scott Bessent is making a major speech today, actually, right now as I’m doing this podcast. I will obviously do a follow up on it probably tomorrow on our show as well. Again, God willing, God willing that they’re stepping back

from this and let’s hope that this is permanent. mean, let’s take a look at the numbers right now. As far as the markets are concerned, Donald Trump put himself into rarefied air when it came to the S &P 500. Off to the worst start, down 14 % than any president since the index was created in 1957.

And the idea that, you know, pulling back now on these tariffs is going to stave off a recession. I don’t believe that that’s the case. I think, you know, we’re kind of heading in that direction. Do I think that the Federal Reserve more than likely is going to have its hand force later on this year? And I think we will see several rates, rate cuts down the road. But again, the idea out there.

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The idea out there that the all clear has sounded is just not the case. I hope it is. I hope it is. But the reality of the terrain is I would expect more volatility moving forward. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.