Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough has said that President Donald Trump essentially freestyled his risky strategy of hitting Canada and Mexico with import tariffs, before hitting pause on the threat when the stock market plunged.
At the top of the MSNBC show Tuesday morning, Scarborough reacted to news that last-second negotiations on Monday between Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum led to a deferment in his much-touted 25 percent tariffs on those countries.
And despite the clamor and potential trade war Trump’s threats have caused, the veteran host reckons the MAGA chief was always just shooting from the hip. “This is what he does, he plays it by ear. The people around him talk about how, you know, he will go out, he’ll say he’s going to do something,” he said.
And referencing the 1987 book by Trump, he added: “But in the first three pages of Art of the Deal we know that’s what he says he does. He shows up in his office, he sits down, he takes phone calls, and he sees how things are going to shake out.”
He then described the president’s initial damning threats as his “opening bid,” one that was always up for negotiation with the businessman turned politician. “People who were close to Donald Trump always had said it’s an opening bid. If he talks about 25 percent tariffs, it’s an opening bid. He’ll talk about it, he’ll put it out there... but if things start going south and the stock market drops, he’s going to find his way out of it.”
The tariffs were blamed for a sharp drop in the S&P 500 at the opening bell on Monday. Despite announcing the tariffs Friday, they were set to go into effect Monday evening. But by the afternoon a flurry of phone calls north and south of the border resulted in peace, for now, with tariffs deferred for a month.
The New York Post took a similar stance to Scarborough, with a piece from its editorial desk stating that Trump should invoke his own message from the Art of the Deal in his tariff “battle.”
“He needs to have some clear, strategic end state in view. And some specific demands foreign leaders will realistically meet, given the pressure he’s applying,” the piece, published Monday evening, stated. “That means it can’t just be vae-victis-style total capitulation.”
However, his style so far has led Mexican President Sheinbaum to bow to one of his demands: 10,000 more troops on her side of the border to stop the flow of hard drugs, and immigrants, to the U.S.
In return, like with Canada, the debilitating tariffs were delayed, but his style is high risk, high reward. If he fails, Americans—and their pockets—could suffer.
China has already refused to play ball, imposing an array of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods and launching an antitrust probe into Google. If Sheinbaum or Trudeau decide to fight back “possible pain” could be on the horizon, Trump admits.
“Failure would include higher prices for already suffering Americans. And punishment for Trump in the polls,” The Post wrote.
