Trump’s latest tariff salvo is all bark and no bite – for now

To hear Trump tell it, Thursday’s new tariffs announcement was a significant and sweeping order that will bring the world to heel. But the plan, as it were, consisted of a vaguely worded memo that offered few concrete details and no real timeframe for the next round of tariffs.

To hear President Donald Trump tell it, Thursday’s new tariffs announcement was a significant and sweeping order that will bring the world to heel. But the plan, as it were, consisted of a vaguely worded memo that offered few concrete details and no real timeframe for when they will kick in. Wall Street, which broadly hates tariffs, reacted with relief. The S&P 500 bounced 1% higher, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 1.5%, and the Dow rose 360 points, or 0.8%. Trump started the day posting on Truth Social that Thursday’s announcement was “the big one.” On the campaign trail, he promised that America would enact reciprocal tariffs that would even the score with foreign countries that trade unfairly with the United States. Trump has suggested reciprocal tariffs could match other countries’ import taxes dollar for dollar. “They charge us a tax or tariff, and we charge them the exact same,” Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office. That’s not what was announced Thursday. The memorandum Trump signed in the Oval Office ordered government agencies to “work strenuously to counter non-reciprocal trading arrangements with trading partners by determining the equivalent of a reciprocal tariff with respect to each foreign trading partner.” In other words: Figure out a plan to make trade fairer.