Washington
Cnn
–
When the president Donald Trump Declared in the Chamber of the Chamber this week that the leaders of the best car manufacturers in the country were “so excited” by their prospects in the middle of his new pricing regime, this did not completely reflect the conversation he had held with them earlier during the day.
Ford Motors, GM and Stellantis have argued on this call according to which the new 25% tariffs that the president applied to Canada and Mexico earlier this week could disadvantage their American companies in favor of foreign car manufacturers – using Trump directly for a stay, said administration officials.
The message seemed to be piercing. A day later, after the car manufacturers once again spoke to Trump, the White House announced a one month exemption Prices for cars entering the United States.
“The president is happy to do so,” said Karoline Leavitt’s press secretary on Wednesday, announcing the change.
Because as often as Trump talks about prices, it is often said to impose them – especially if the pressure comes from the titans of the industry or the market, a barometer that Trump follows carefully.
And while working to realign world trade using his favorite tool, the president has clearly indicated that the threat of prices is as much a motivator as the real thing.
“The president is open to hearing additional exemptions,” said Leavitt. “He always has an open dialogue and he will always do what is good, what he believes to be good for the American people.”
While Trump was willing to give car manufacturers a month before applying the new prices, he offered no concession of such to the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Instead, he said he said to Trudeau during a phone call on Wednesday that he had not done enough to brake the fentanyl crossing the border – despite The tiny amount This happens in the United States of his northern neighbor. Trump suggested after the call – which he said “ended in a” somewhat “friendly” way – that the outgoing trudeau could use the price problem to “stay in power”.
While its promising price threat for a long time in Canada and Mexico has transformed reality this week, the best advisers of the White House began to suspend a wave of calls of business leaders, especially in the automotive sector, as well as GOP legislators who sounded the alarm.
The managers of the White House and the Administration offered few specific advice on these calls to the way they would make the prices, but have transmitted that they understood the concerns, said people familiar with the conversations.
Trump, who mainly spent on Tuesday in camera preparing his prime speech during prime times, spoke to the best car leaders to hear their concerns. Earlier in the day, a first group of car lobbies warned that vehicle prices could drop up to 25%, the impacts being felt “almost immediately”.
At the same time, Trump – who has long settled on how his policies take place on the markets – and his team preached special attention to the stock market on Tuesday, looking at the implementation of prices, a familiar source with the discussions told CNN. Many people close to Trump think that the markets will finally stabilize, two sources familiar with the discussions indicated, although the fall was a shock inside the west wing.
On Wednesday, Leavitt minimized the role that a radical fellowship on the stock market played in the president’s decision to offer a stay of one month to car companies.
“I think that for the people of Wall Street who can be worried, look at what this president did for you during his first mandate,” Leavitt told journalists. “Wall Street exploded. The stock market exploded. The president expects this to happen again. »»
Some officials of this week have also started expressing internal concerns about how prices would affect the country areas near the North border such as Michigan, a state overturned red in November and has the largest number of job industry in the United States.
“While pain is starting to strike American cities, especially those closer to Canada, it is feared that the fentanyl argument is not strong enough” for affected Americans, a familiar source with the discussions told CNN, referring to Trump’s justification for hitting the new prices.
Ten minutes after closing the markets on Tuesday – the industrial average of Dow Jones finished 670 points, or 1.55% – Trump’s trade secretary, Howard Lunick, had taken Fox’s affairs to preview a potential stay.
Indeed, it was Lutnick who appeared at the forefront of the relief of the prices, appearing on television at least twice more within 24 hours to suggest that Trump was considering steps to diminish, at least temporarily.
However, speaking of the house of the house on Tuesday evening, Trump did not look like a man ready to go back. “If you do not create your product in America under the Trump administration, you will pay a price and, in some cases, a fairly large,” he insisted.
But the stay of the next day – to which the markets showed the first signs of a positive response – was the last example of an economic boost by the Trump administration on prices. He remained to know if the 36 hours of chaos were a case of mixed messaging or a white house which was simply rushed to appease various constituencies.
“We had two days of uncertainty on the market and the hair of everyone is on fire,” said Peter Navarro, principal advisor to the president of commerce and manufacturing on Wednesday.
While the automotive industry has praised the aid for a month, those whose livelihoods depend on a stable market have declared that uncertainty would pose a high challenge.
“It is certainly a relief, but in the long term, the situation does not change,” said David Kelleher, owner of a Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram dealer in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.
“In the long term, I think it would be great for the administration to work with these companies and find ways to improve our position in America,” he said on CNN. “We are building a majority of our vehicles in the United States. We are already building a majority in the United States. For a car dealer, this percentage would completely ruin my results. »»
In Ottawa, officials worked to reconcile the various messages from Washington.
During last week, Trudeau had tried to reach Trump by phone without success, a rehearsal of his attempts when Trump came into office for the first time to speak with his counterpart.
As he emerged to denounce Trump’s plan at a press conference on Tuesday, Trudeau seemed to lose what Canada could do to satisfy Trump.
“We don’t want that,” he said. “We want to work with you as an Imi and ally, and we don’t want to see you either. But your government has chosen to do this to you. »»
Looking at the Trudeau’s press conference at the White House, the officials took note when the Canadian leader called Trump as “Donald” instead of “president”, whom they took as a lack of respect (Nevermind Trump took Trudeau’s call “governor” in a reference to his eccentric territorial ambitions).
There is no warm feeling at the Trump’s White House for the outgoing Prime Minister, who spent his last week at the Bureau satisfying economic benefits of the prices.
Trump advisers believe that the successor of the probable Liberal Party of Trudeau, Mark Carney, could be a more “reasonable partner,” said the American Treasury Secretary this week.
However, no Canadian politician will adopt Trump’s pricing strategy. Even the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, said Trump on Tuesday that Trump had “stabbed the best American friend on the back” with the new prices.
Other leaders in Canada also drew the attention of White House officials. Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford has promised to reduce electricity exports to the United States “with a smile on my face” if Trump’s prices were promulgated.
But even if some of his traditional allies on Wall Street and Capitol Hill urged Trump to abandon the notion of prices as a crucial negotiation tool, he and his advisers insist that the strategy worked and said that they were carrying out in its own right to promulgate reciprocal rates on April 2.
“We have seen incredible movements from the Mexican government, but we have to see more than Canada. We are talking about additional border security, “Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz said on Wednesday.
“Their borders cut fentanyl, but also things like the security of the Arctic, the bases of the North and other pieces that we must see within the framework of this tariff negotiation.”