What Trump’s team really wants out of tariffs

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent looks on as President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on April 9, 2025. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff policy, in which he declared trade war on the entire world simultaneously, was a bizarre and nonsensical undertaking, seemingly shaped only by the president’s own whims.

But since that initial announcement, the policy has been modified to bear at least a little bit more of a resemblance to what Trump’s more sophisticated advisers wanted.