President Donald Trump, again, reversed course on his vow to impose stiff tariffs on Canada on Tuesday – with one of his top trade advisors sparring with reporters outside the White House over the continuing series of on-again, off-again announcements.
CNN’s Jake Tapper reported on the moves, saying, “Another day of what you might call tariff whiplash. Starting with the president this morning saying he’s going to add a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. from Canada, which led to the Ontario premier continuing to threaten to cut off electricity supplies from Canada to Americans getting that electricity in New York, Minnesota, and Michigan.”
“This is a tit for tat that went on all day. It ended with the U.S. and Canada agreeing to meet Thursday to renegotiate the trade agreement. But those U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada are still set to go into effect at midnight tonight. We’re going to talk to the Trump administration, senior trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro in the show today. All of this affecting the markets, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing down, marking the second bad day for the markets this week after yesterday’s disastrous plunge,” Tapper added.
Soon after, Navarro told reporters “that an increased tariff of 50% on Canadian steel and aluminum will not take effect on Wednesday, after Trump had earlier ordered the 25% tariff be doubled,” reported Reuters.
“Looks like the president is negotiating strategically. So stop with the rhetoric. Okay? Just stop that crap,” Navarro told reporters in a clip taken by USA Today’s Joey Garrison.
“But he does seem to be changing his mind all the time,” the reporter replied.
“Stop that crap!” Navarro hit back.
“Sir, where are you from?” Navarro asked.
“From Sky News UK,” replied the reporter as they started talking over each other.
“But why is that? Why is that? It’s a fact that he’s changing his mind every single day,” added the reporter.
“It’s a negotiation my friend,” Navarro shot back.
“Right. So he doesn’t mean it? It’s all part of a negotiation. And it’s causing havoc to the stock markets,” said the reporter.
“It’s not causing havoc,” Navarro fumed.
“Well it is, they are tumbling,” pressed the reporter.
“Back up. Stop! Stop!” Navarro demanded as other reporters tried asking questions.
“I’m allowed to ask questions for folks who weren’t out here. Do you not believe that it’s causing havoc for the stock market?” pressed the reporter.
“Because here’s what we can do. I can either stay here and answer your questions, and you can be civil about it, or you can hector me like this. So stand back. Get that thing out of my face. You’ve had your chance to ask questions. I will answer some other questions,” Navarro said moving to other reporters.
Watch the clip above.