Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Thursday pushed President Donald Trump over his unclear timelines and strategy regarding tariffs.
“You did use USMCA,” Bartiromo said, in an interview that aired Friday morning, referring to Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade. “You put this together. And yet, then you come back and you change it up with these tariffs, and you said to me at that time, ‘I did it because I can. I put an amendment in there, and I said in six years I can change it.’”
“But I think CEOs want to see predictability. They say, look, I have to speak with shareholders. I’ve got to make plans for CapEx spending; I can’t if it's 20% one day, and then it’s off for a month and it’s 25%,” she continued. “Can you give us a sense of whether or not we are going to get clarity for the business community?”
“Well, I think so. But, you know, the tariffs could go up as time goes by,” Trump responded. “I don’t know if it’s predictability.”
“That’s not clarity,” Bartiromo said.
In less than two months back in office, Trump has started, rescinded, restarted, and again rescinded tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, often shifting their size, scope, and timelines. His latest back and forth: On Thursday, after days of stock market dips, Trump delayed tariffs for nearly a month for products from Mexico and Canada that are covered by the USMCA. But then, on Friday, he said he could impose tariffs “as early as today” on Canada, even floating a 250% reciprocal tariff on Canadian lumber and dairy products.
