Trump spoke in a Q&A at Apple headquarters
Keep in mind that Trump said earlier in his comments that they were considering exempting Apple from tariffs. To me, that alone says he is already a couple steps along in the process of adding tariffs, or at least strongly considering it.
The main headlines have been reported already but the last part is where the context matters.
Reporter: Will there be a trade deal in place before the end of the year?
Trump: So, I can tell you this: China would much rather make a trade deal than me?
Reporter: Then why haven't they?
Trump: Because I haven't wanted to do it yet.
Reporter: Why haven't you wanted to do it.
Trump: Because I don't think they're stepping up to the level that I want
Reporter: I spoke earlier today with Mr Cook and he said another round of tariffs would be bad for business, it would be bad for the United States (interrupted by Trump)
Trump: You know, here's what I would say. What do you know? I put in tariffs and everyone said 'Oh geez, you're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars' and everyone said 'oh that's going to be bad for the economy'. Well, as you just heard from Tim Cook, we have the strongest economy by far in the world and we're taking in billions and billions. So we'll see what happens.
That's almost the exact argument that Peter Navarro has been making and Navarro wants to blow the deal up. Trump doesn't believe 'experts' he thinks he's smarter than the economists telling him not to do it. He truly loves tariffs. The meeting this week with Powell was to gauge whether he will get more rate cuts.
Earlier in today's appearance, he also said:
"We're doing very nicely with China but I like the way it is now, we're taking in billions and billions of dollars and we're giving some of that money to farmers and others."
To me that sounds a lot like someone who is trying to say that the tariffs aren't coming off.
The pieces are falling into place for the theory I wrote about earlier today and he's leaning towards walking away, or at least taking a hard-line on China and hoping they break.
This is still the most-important tweet of Trump's Presidency:
CNBC is also trying to warn you.
Maybe it's all a bluff from Trump but I think the risks are higher than markets are showing.
