Zanny Minton Beddoes: It Will Be Inevitable for Europe To Move Closer to China Because of Trump’s Tariffs

MINTON BEDDOES: “I’m not suggesting that he’s going to move away from tariffs completely. I agree with you, David. He totally believes it.”
KAY: “He could put a pause on it.”
MINTON BEDDOES: “But he’s put — yeah, he’s put 10 percent on already, and he could put a pause on the ones that are coming on Wednesday and just say, while I negotiate, and then they will come in.”
KAY: “Well, also, make the — not to put you in this position, because I know what the economist’s stance is on this, but I know that you speak to people in the administration. This is clearly short-term pain for long-term gain, is what they’re saying. Would it be possible, even, for America, because the record from the first administration in terms of manufacturing jobs was not great, is it possible, with super high tariffs, for Donald Trump to do what he seems singularly focused on, which is rebuilding American manufacturing, which seems to be mostly cars, really, is what seems like American —“ [crosstalk]
MINTON BEDDOES: “So to answer, Katty, that is exactly why I’m here all week talking to people in the administration, trying to understand the method and what seems from the outside at least to be Madness. But I think there are — there are — first of all, there are different goals that different people have. Some want them as a revenue raiser. Some want them to bring everything back, including, I think, the president. And the answer to your question is that you can probably encourage some things to come back. But you are not going to be making sneakers in the U.S., you are not going to be making low-end garments in the U.S., that is just purely a tax on the U.S. consumer. And so perhaps you can get some back, but it will be more expensive, less innovative, less productive. The innovation will be elsewhere. The U.S. is a relatively small part of global trade. The rest of the world will carry on innovating without it if it hides behind a tariff wall this high.”
LEMIRE: “Well, certainly, guys, there’s no sign yet that President Trump is backing off these tariffs. He just posted to Truth Social a few moments ago, putting it on the screen now, claiming that oil prices are down, interest rates are down. He’s prompting the Fed to do more. Food prices are down. There is no inflation, he says. And let’s fact-check that. That will come as the impact of these tariffs, if they fully do go into place in the days ahead. He then takes another swipe at China, says their markets are crashing, you know, says they shouldn’t have retaliated with their 34 percent tariff increase of their own. And he says the tariffs that are already in place are bringing in billions of dollars and suggests that the past leaders are to blame for our trade deficits, and Joe and Mika, that this will be the solution to right the ship and, in his words, make America great again. So it seems Donald Trump continues to defy what just about every economist says about the impact of these tariffs. You know, we will see if there is some sort of course change or even a slight moderation in the days ahead. But right now, at 7:16 A.M. Monday morning on the East Coast, the president seems hell-bent on keeping these going. We’ll see what the markets look like in 2-plus hours. They were certainly rough overnight from Asia and Europe.”
SCARBOROUGH: “So, Zanny, it brings up a question that — what you said reminded me of something a world leader had told me in the middle of the Biden Administration when they were put off by something on defense. It was sort of a take it or leave it proposition for — for — for — for this country. And they said, you all are acting like we can’t just turn around and deal with China tomorrow. the United States does not stand alone. We can deal with China, we can deal with the E.U., we don’t have to deal with the United States. I’m curious how much of a windfall could this possibly be for China when you have the E.U. looking east and you have the Gulf region looking east and you have the rest of the world looking east if the United States insists on continuing in a — in a trade war?”
MINTON BEDDOES: “I think you’re absolutely right. I think this could be a huge opportunity for China. I was just in China for 10 days and I came back last week and we put on our cover outside the U.S., we put make China great again, because that is the opportunity of what Donald Trump is offering. Because by geopolitically really moving away and essentially leaving his allies in the lurch, turning on his allies and economically hiding behind these huge tariff barriers, the end result is that, as I said, the rest of the world is not — it’s going to be incredibly painful. Don’t get me wrong. Everyone’s going to suffer from this. But at the end of it, you may end up with a global trading system that — without the U.S. that continues and you will certainly have regions like Europe moving closer in economic terms to China. It’s almost going to be inevitable if the U.S. really continues down this path.”