President Donald Trump and White House officials walked back a Friday announcement that there would be tariff exemptions on imported electronics.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump directly denied the tariff exemption announcement.
“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst! There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday,” he said, adding that Americans can look forward to “more and better paying Jobs, making products in our Nation, and treating other Countries, in particular China, the same way they have treated us” as a result of his agenda.
Trump also said that the National Security Tariff Investigations will be reviewing “the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN.”
Correspondingly, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer indicated that semiconductor tariffs were “not really an exception,” in an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.
“We certainly need to have semiconductors, and the downstream electronics supply chain move to the United States. What happened is – it’s not really an exception. That’s not even the right word for it,” Greer said. “So, it’s not that they won’t be subject to tariffs geared at reshoring. They’ll just be under a different regime. It’s shifting from one bucket of tariffs to a different bucket of potential tariffs.”
On the other hand, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump’s tariff exemption on imported electronics is only temporary.
According to Lutnick in a Sunday interview on “This Week” with Jonathan Karl, electronics will be included in semiconductor tariffs, which will likely be enforced within a month or two.
Trump, Greer and Lutnick’s remarks on Sunday come in direct contrast with communication from US Customs and Border Protection late on Friday that claimed imported electronics, such as smartphones, laptops and more, would be exempt from Trump’s tariffs.
“We can’t be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need,” Lutnick added. “So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. [Trump is] just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These are things that are national security that we need to be made in America.”
The exemption would have been great news for big tech companies that manufacture many of their products abroad — as Apple does in China.
According to a statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, “These companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”
“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops. That’s why the President has secured trillions of dollars in US investments from the largest tech companies in the world, including Apple, (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), and Nvidia,” Leavitt said in the statement, according to CNN on Saturday.
The news is the latest in Trump’s tariff back and forth with dozens of other countries. Trump announced a bulk of his so-called “reciprocal tariffs” on April 2, a day which he dubbed “Liberation Day.” Days later, however, he then implemented a 90-day pause on the Liberation Day tariffs, leaving behind a basic 10% tariff on most countries. But Trump has put 145% tariffs on China.
People in the business world took to social media in response to Lutnick’s interview and Trump’s ever-evolving tariff policies, according to Mediaite.
Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino said on X that CEOs and investors he has talked to have called Trump’s tariff policies “a sad, scary and at times, silly spectacle.”
“Plus they will say Howard Lutnick is a horrible spokesman for whatever trade regime the White House comes up with,” Gasparino added.
“So Lutnick says we are zigging and zagging on the electronic and technology tariffs,” Anthony Scaramucci, entrepreneur and former White House Director of Communications, wrote on X. “It’s ok to admit at this point that they have no idea what they are doing.”
“This is really mind-boggling. If this was serious industrial policy, the main thing you want is certainty: ‘Here’s the tariff, it will be in place for the indefinite future, and you should plan accordingly,’” Dean Baker, an economist at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank, said, according to The Washington Post. “Here, it’s basically: ‘Come back next week and see what we’ve got.’ That’s no way to run an economy.”
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