Bulwark Takes - Trump’s Trade War Lies Explained in 10 Minutes and 39 Seconds

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Will Saletan deep dives into Donald Trump’s attempts to re-write the narrative around his tariffs that crashed the economy, as his administration officials including Peter Navarro, Howard Lutnick, Scott Bessent and Karoline Leavitt repeat the lies on the reason for the tariffs and why they were put on pause.

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Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. That was Orwell's illustration of how an authoritarian government can rewrite the past. And that's also how this authoritarian government, the one that Donald Trump is building in the United States, is trying to rewrite our past. What I want to show you today is what actually happened this month in the United States and how our government is gaslighting us about what they did. On April 2nd, Trump announced that he would impose tariffs, really big tariffs, all over the world.

Here's what he told corporate investors on April 4th. He said, come build factories in the United States because I'll protect you with tariffs. And those tariffs, he said, will never change. And in case the investors had any doubt, Trump posted another message later that day. He said the tariffs were, quote, here to stay, but there was a problem. It turned out that Trump's global trade war was a really bad idea. It was gonna crash the economy.

So people started bailing out of the stock market and the bond market. And to stop the bleeding, a rumor went around that maybe Trump would pause the tariffs for 90 days. But Trump said, no way. He said he wasn't even considering that idea. You should be open to a pause in tariffs to allow for negotiations. Well, we're not looking at that.

But then he did. On April 9th, a week after he announced the tariffs, he backed off. On Truth Social, he wrote that he was authorizing a 90-day pause so other countries could negotiate new trade deals with the United States. In fact, Trump claimed, contrary to what he'd said two days earlier, that he'd been talking about the idea of a pause with his advisors for some time. But this was something certainly we've been talking about for a period of time, and we decided to pull the trigger. Now, you might ask, at what point between April 2nd, when he announced the tariffs, and April 9th, when he suspended them,

did Trump change his mind? And the answer from our government was he never changed. They said this was the plan all along. That's what the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson, told reporters at the White House immediately after Trump hit the pause button. And we saw the successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today. And all this was, again, this was driven by the president's strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along. You know what's hilarious about that clip? That guy, Scott Besson, we now know from the Wall Street Journal that Besant and another guy had to sneak in to see Trump, not a week earlier like he's telling you, but that day to get Trump to drop the tariffs. In fact, Besant did that maneuver backstage literally minutes before he came out and gave that speech you just saw about how this was Trump's plan

all along. And it wasn't just Besson. All of Trump's flunkies went on TV and claimed that the pause had been in the works from the beginning. Here's Kevin Hassett, another Trump advisor. When the president decided to do the pause that we had been talking about all along. All along, they want you to believe that Trump had a brilliant plan to announce the tariffs and then pause them to negotiate trade deals with each country. That's a lie, and I'm going to show you the facts. Let's start with the White House press secretary, Caroline Leavitt. Here she is on CNN on April 3rd, the day after the tariffs were announced.

Is there any chance that the president will pull back on implementing these tariffs before they go into effect this weekend? The president made it clear yesterday this is not a negotiation, this is a national emergency. And then here's what Levitt said four days later on April 7th, according to CNBC. Spoke to Caroline Levitt, the White House press secretary, on the phone just a short time ago, and she tells me it is, quote unquote, fake news that the White House is considering a 90-day pause. And here's Levitt again at a White House briefing on April 8th. It's clear the president has gotten the world's attention with these tariffs. Is there, is he considering at all potentially holding off on imposing some of them before the

deadline or maybe later, you know, reversing them because he's having these negotiations and having these good talks with other leaders? The president was asked and answered this yesterday. He said he's not considering an extension or delay. That was the day before Trump did exactly what Levitt said he wouldn't do. And at her next briefing, after Trump hit the pause button, Levitt showed up literally with a new script. Here she is reading from it. And these countries wisely heeded President Trump's warning not to retaliate and as a

result they were rewarded with a 90 day pause and substantially lower reciprocal tariff rates. So that's the press secretary. Now let me show you the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Here he is on April 3rd, the day after Trump announced his tariffs on what he called Liberation Day. At what point would the administration consider pulling back on tariffs, especially on those 10% across the board tariffs? Where is the room for negotiation? I don't think there's any chance that President Trump's going to back off his tariffs.

And then here's Lutnick three days later on Face the Nation. Is that correct or is the president considering postponing implementation to negotiate? There is no postponing. They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks. That is sort of obvious. No negotiations, no pause. The tariffs will stay in place for weeks. So what did Lutnick say after Trump reversed himself three days later? He claimed that, in fact, Trump had not changed. Lutnick's argument was that even though Trump had dropped all his tariffs from numbers like 50%, 80%, and 99% all the way down to 10%,

that 10% meant that Trump had stood firm. No, no, the reciprocal tariffs stay in place. They are 10% across the board on all the countries, right? We paused on any numbers that are above 10%. He announced Liberation Day and he did not bend. He did not bend. Right. Did I mention that Lutnick was the other guy who went in with Besant to get Trump to drop the tariffs? And then he comes out and gives you this story about our stalwart president who did not bend. Lutnick is such a weasel that he can look you in the eye and tell you one thing one day and the exact opposite the next day. Check out what he told CNN on April 3rd. He is willing to negotiate with these countries right now? Negotiate is talking, no talking, doing. These countries have abused us and exploited us, as he said yesterday.

They need to change their ways. Let's see them change their ways. It's going to be a long time. Let's see what they do. Not talking. Talking is nonsense. No negotiating. Talking is nonsense. And then here's Lutnick six days later, after Trump switched from tariffs to negotiating. We have so many great countries who want to talk, who are willing to talk, who are finally, finally willing to make what we expect to be a fair deal for America. And we're really excited to talk to them. One more. Let me show you Trump's trade advisor, Peter Navarro.

Here he is on Fox News the day the tariffs were announced. This is not a negotiation, Jesse. This is a national emergency. So no, this is not a negotiation. It's a national emergency. And then here he is the next day on CNBC. How negotiable are these tariffs? What does it take for countries to actually negotiate the tariffs that were just announced yesterday?

Let me make this very clear. This is not a negotiation. This is not that. This is a national emergency. And then, after Trump announced that, on second thought, it would be a negotiation, here's what Navarro told ABC News. As you know, earlier this week he said there would be no pause. What's ultimately the strategy here?

I think you missed it. It wasn't hence the pause. It's trust in Trump. This negotiation went exactly the way we had hoped it would go. So is this all playing out today as you had anticipated? Yes, exactly. Right. It all played out exactly the way Navarro expected. Except for the fact that Navarro, according to the Wall Street Journal, is the guy who didn't want Trump to drop the tariffs. And he got totally blindsided by the other two guys, Besson and Lutnick. What a bunch of liars. These people, Lutnick, Levitt, Besson, Navarro, Hassett,

they'll say anything. They'll literally pick up a script and read out the new party line. And they'll tell you that the old party line never existed, just like 1984. And that's why they're in these jobs. Trump hired these people precisely because they're willing to lie to you. They're willing to tell you that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia. So don't tell me that 1984 can't happen here. It's happening now. See you next time.