Donald Trump recognized the international celebration of April Fool’s Day, suggesting that he did not wish his tariff policy misinterpreted as a joke.
US President Donald Trump explained his stance on tariffs in his first address to Congress in his second term. Announcing that “America is back”, Trump said that he would equal any tariffs imposed on American products by other nations, including India, from April.
The President of the US had earlier scheduled tariffs from April 1. He has now chosen an alternative date and announced that the United States will not be applying tariffs from the original April 1 date. During his speech, Donald Trump declared that other countries’ tariffs from April 2 will be countered by equivalent taxes from the United States.
On April 2, I wished to make it April 1, but I did not wish to be charged with April Fools’ Day.”. This one day will cost us a lot of money, but we’re going to do it on April 2. I’m a very superstitious person,” he explained. He acknowledged the global observance of April Fool’s Day, implying that he did not want his tariff policy misconstrued as a prank. Consequently, he opted to implement tariffs from April 2 instead.
On April 2, the reciprocal tariffs take effect. And whatever they tariff us, other nations, we will tariff them. That’s reciprocal tariff back and forth,” Trump declared.
In his speech to the joint session of Congress, Donald Trump declared that if nations do not produce their goods in the US, they will be charged tariffs. He particularly mentioned India, China, Canada, and Mexico, presenting this action as a move towards making America richer.
Blaming other nations for not letting the US into their markets through non-monetary tariffs, Trump stated, “If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. There’s a lot of that (non-monetary tariffs) too. They don’t even let us into their market.”
Vowing to generate jobs in the US by imposing high reciprocal tariffs on other nations, he stated, “We will bring in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before. I did it with China and I did it with others, and the Biden administration couldn’t do anything about it.”
