Whipping reversal means Trump's unstable trade policy is as clear as mud | Trump tariffs

Donald Trump said decades of economic orthodoxy failed millions of Americans, and Donald Trump returned to the White House and promised to chop up the status quo. But the details of his alternative—it is how his administration claims it will make America great again—a day change.

The U.S. president announced this week a key milestone in his second term as he announced his first major trade deal after accelerating negotiations with the UK.

But that's Trump's position, everything from the tariffs on strollers and movies to whether his administration wants to make such a global deal, seems to have changed throughout the hour.

Companies around the world have been trying to reach a deal with the president’s knees at a rapid pace: policies can be announced as quickly as leaders of the free world can be announced, adjusted and shelved, and social media posts can be made.

“There is too much uncertainty,” said Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (NON GRATA, the role in Trump World). “If you talk to a business, market participant, or forecaster, everyone is waiting to understand what development is going on.”

Bring a stroller. This is a week when Trump believes some prices are more important than others.

After pledging to lower prices, the president is keen to focus on the fallen people in NBC News interviews aired last weekend. However, his interviewers have observed that some have risen: 97% of strollers in the U.S. made in China, for example, have seen a sharp rise in prices since Trump’s sharp hikes in the country.

The president has nothing. He asserted that the price of fuel (falls) is "thousands of times more important than strollers." Later in the interview, he asked more positive questions. "Because what do you know? A big business with gasoline." "Baby strollers are not big business."

On Sunday, the information was almost unclear. Of course, strollers may be more expensive - but in the grand scheme of things, "is peanuts." Other costs are thousands of times more important.

By Wednesday, the government is moving in a different direction. Finance Secretary Scott Bessent told Congress that potential tariff exemptions on childcare and baby products, such as car seats, cribs and strollers, are “under consideration.”

Then there is the movie. This is also the week Trump emphasized standing up for Hollywood.

The president suddenly announced that he was worried that Hollywood would be "dead" on the weekend. He wrote in The Society of Truth that a 100% tariff would be imposed on “all movies and all movies that enter our country’s production.”

Donald Trump heard Peter Mandelson, British ambassador to the United States, as he announced a bilateral trade deal on Thursday. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP

Many American blockbusters are produced, filmed and edited in various countries. There is no detailed information on how to execute a policy. It is not clear which movies will and will not face tariffs.

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But on Sunday, the information was almost unclear. Hollywood is “spoiled” by the rise of filmmaking elsewhere. This poses a national security threat; U.S. officials will immediately start working on high tariffs.

By Monday, the government was moving in a different direction. White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that “no final decision was made” and that the administration is “exploring all options.”

And reach a deal. It's also the week Trump: The art author of the deal announced that he's finished.

During his campaign, he repeatedly promised to negotiate a deal to end the war and tilt the world economy. But earlier this week, cameras in the Oval Office were surrounded by the president complaining that the media had been fixed.

"You've been writing about transactions, transactions," he told reporters. "I hope they will stop asking, 'How many transactions are you going to sign this week?' Because one day, we'll come and we don't have to sign.

"And I don't think my people have yet to be clear," the president said. Although the United States will sign "some deals", tariffs are the focus of "bigger". In the U.S., overseas companies “will have to pay”. “Think of us as a super luxury store.”

On Tuesday, the information was almost unclear. Trade transactions are not all and final transactions. The United States will raise the needs of trading partners and it will continue to hit them with massive tariffs unless they agree.

By Thursday, the government is moving in a different direction. Trump announced that "we will have a bigger biggest deal", announcing that the deal rules with the UK are only the first deal.

In fact, the UK-US deal is not completed. It was declared that it was hasty: the diplomatic equivalent of holding a wedding reception after engagement but before the ceremony. British Prime Ministers Trump and Keir Starmer both acknowledged that some details have not been determined.

But the president is not there - "many trade deals in the hopper, are good (great!)," he wrote on the truth the next day - which brought us to China.

The government has not attacked the economy more actively or more difficult. Trump insists that whether it is higher prices or empty shelves, it is worth mentioning as Washington fights Beijing. "It's all worth the price you have to pay," he wrote in February.

Trump retaliated quickly by raising U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, sparking a trade war between the world's two largest economies. "They deserve it," he told ABC News last week. "They tear us up like no one has ripped us up."

But today, the government seems to be moving in a different direction. Bessent has been sent to Geneva to negotiate with Chinese officials.

The president, who has been insisting that the United States must hold distance from China for months, stressed that the Treasury Secretary is leading the conversations - but his two cents. "The 80% tariff on China seems to be correct," he wrote. "To Scott B."

What happened next was anyone's guess. But it's safe to say that this may not depend on Scott B.