White House Admits That They Have No Plan If China Imposes Tariffs

When Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro was pressed on Meet The Press for the White House’s plan if China imposed retaliatory tariffs, Navarro responded with nothing.

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Video:

Transcript via Meet The Press:

CHUCK TODD:

Not many people in the Midwest, many Republican lawmakers, including one I’m going to have on in a minute, don’t like this tariff policy. Let me put up what Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska said, “Hopefully the president is just blowing off steam again. But if he’s even half serious, this is nuts. The president has no actual plan to win right now. He’s threatening to light American agriculture on fire. This is the dumbest possible way to do this.” What do you say to the criticism you’re getting from the Midwestern Senators and governors of both sides of the aisle, who are panicked about the agricultural industry?

PETER NAVARRO:

Let me be very, very clear about this. When the president announced the addition $100 billion in tariffs, he also announced that he was directing Sonny Perdue, a great American and the Secretary of Agriculture, to immediately implement a plan to defend American farmers.

CHUCK TODD:

Does that mean buying–

PETER NAVARRO:

And what’s going on here–

CHUCK TODD:

–soybean crops? Does that mean buying soybean crops–

PETER NAVARRO:

This will be of– it’s up–

CHUCK TODD:

–that the Chinese won’t buy?

PETER NAVARRO:

It’s up to Sonny Perdue and the president to implement the plan. The details of that plan will be rolled out. But let me say this, Mr. Todd. How cynical it is for the Chinese basically, rather than respond graciously and stop doing all this bad stuff they’re doing to attack American farmers, I think that’s going to be a wake-up call for Americans about just– we’ve changed now our designation in the national security strategy of China to a strategic competitor. What does that mean? It means that they are in competition with us–

CHUCK TODD:

Right

PETER NAVARRO:

— over economic prosperity and national defense. And– and this is a competition the president takes very, very seriously.

Trump has no tariff plan

Trump’s plan is to burn down the US agricultural sector of the economy, and then tell Sonny Perdue to fix it.

That’s it.

When a government official makes statements like the details will be rolled out later, this means that there is no plan. The White House has no plan. Trump decided on his own to make tariff threats, and he is hoping that the Chinese don’t call his bluff. Voters don’t want Trump’s trade war. The talk of tariffs is making the 2018 election even more difficult for Republicans.

If the White House is going threaten China, they better have a plan, but Trump’s got nothing.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association