Trump imposes sweeping Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs targeting ‘foreign cheaters’ sending shockwaves worldwide

President Donald Trump made good on his campaign promise to implement sweeping new tariffs, doing so with great fanfare during a Wednesday afternoon event in the White House Rose Garden. 

Countries around the world will be hit with at least a 10 percent tariff on their imports with some reaching up to a whopping 50 percent.

The tariffs are being levied based on ‘barriers to entry.’ That means the European Union will be hit with 20 percent tariffs because it charges a 39 percent tariff on America. 

The U.K., on the other hand, got off relatively easy. Since it only charges the U.S. a 10 percent tariff, it will pay 10 percent in return.

China will pay a 34 percent tariff, with the White House calculating that the U.S. pays 67 percent when currency manipulation is factored in.

‘My fellow Americans, this is liberation day, we’ve been waiting for a long time,’ Trump proclaimed. ‘In a few moments, I will sign a historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world.’ 

As Trump spoke the stock market tanked – with Dow futures dropping more than 250 points, the S&P 500 falling 100 points and Nasdaq futures dripping more than 400 points. 

President Donald Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs during his Liberation Day event in the White House Rose Garden Wednesday afternoon 

The president kicked off speech by giving a blistering tirade, slamming ‘friend and foe’ for ‘ripping off’ America. He condemned ‘foreign scavengers.’ And he talked of other nations that had ‘pillaged, raped and plundered’ the U.S. and ‘foreign cheaters’ who ‘ransacked’ American factories. 

He’s enacting the tariffs under the guise of a ‘national emergency.’  

It took nearly 20 minutes before Trump shared the tariff details. 

‘For nations that treat us badly we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating. And because we are being very kind … We will charge them approximately half of what they charge us,’ Trump said. 

Trump then held up a large sign that showed the calculations. 

President Donald Trump holds up a giant chart showing some of the reciprocal tariffs his administration plans to charge foreign countries. Every country will be charged at least a 10 percent tariff to import goods to the U.S. 

The first of eight pages of reciprocal tariffs that the White House announced during Wednesday’s event in the Rose Garden 

Meanwhile White House aides passed out paper copies of the chart to reporters at the back of the crowd. 

As Trump went through the chart, he knocked even some of the U.S.’s closest allies for charging import taxes. 

‘The European Union. They’re very tough, very, very tough traders. You think of European Union, very friendly. They rip us off. It’s so said to see. It’s pathetic,’ Trump said. ‘Thirty-nine percent, we’re going to charge them 20 percent, so we’re charging them essentially half.’ 

Trump called Vietnam ‘great negotiators’ and said they were ‘great people.’ 

‘They like me, I like them. The problem is they charge us 90 percent. We’re going to charge them 46 percent,’ he said.   

Trump blasted Taiwan and said they ‘took all of our computer chips and semiconductors.’ 

Taiwan will be charged 32 percent. 

‘Japan – very, very tough, great people,’ Trump continued. Japan will be hit with a 24 percent tariff. 

Trump also said that India was ‘very, very tough’ while complimenting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a ‘great friend of mine.’ 

‘But I said, ‘You’re a friend of mine but you’re not treating us right,” Trump said, pointing out that India will now be charged 26 percent.  

The largest tariff will hit the African nation of Lesotho, at a rate of 50 percent. 

Canada and Mexico were exempt from Wednesday’s tariff announcement, due to the president already charging them 25 percent excluding the goods outlined in the trade agreement from Trump’s first administration. 

‘They all understand, we’re gonna have to go through a little tough love maybe? But they all understand. They’re ripping us off and they understood,’ Trump said.  

Trump had been heralding the tariff announcement as ‘Liberation Day’ for weeks but up until the event kicked off, it appeared some of the details hadn’t been fully worked out. 

President Donald Trump holds up his signed executive order at the conclusion of his event in the Rose Garden introducing substantial reciprocal tariffs 

Vice President J.D. Vance (from left), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins attend President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day event in the White House Rose Garden 

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem gives a wave as she’s acknowledged by President Donald Trump during his nearly 50-minute remarks Wednesday to introduce sweeping tariffs

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that some advisers had floated a 20 percent baseline rate – higher than what the president revealed. 

A White House fact sheet from Wednesday said that the 10 percent rate would take effect on April 5, while the higher rates on individual countries would go into effect on April 9. 

‘These tariffs will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated,’ the fact sheet added.  

In the hours ahead of the announcement, CBS News reported that Trump would use the Rose Garden event – the first of his second term – to officially announce the creation of the External Revenue Service. 

Israel made a last-ditch effort to get out of U.S. tariffs with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing that his country would drop all the remaining import taxes on U.S. items. 

Israel and the U.S. already have a free trade agreement, but there were some duties on U.S. imports. 

The White House chart said Israel will now pay a 17 percent tariff.  

Trump’s will-he-or-won’t-he on tariffs had already created stock market turmoil, raised the odds of a recession and started to push up inflation on household items, with economic experts fearing even more price hikes. 

Ahead of ‘Liberation Day,’ Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum, a 20 percent tariff on shipments from China and the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, which he linked to a national emergency of fentanyl coming over the southern and northern borders. 

Last week Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on foreign cars set to take effect on Thursday. 

The White House Rose Garden was utilized for the first time of President Donald Trump’s second term for the tariff announcement 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (center) chats with Administrator of the Small Business Administration Kelly Loeffler (left) and 

Health and Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrives for President Donald Trump’s tariff Rose Garden announcement at the White House on Wednesday 

The president has also threatened to slap a 200 percent tariff on all wine and spirits from the European Union after the Europeans announced a planned 50 percent tariff on American whiskey. 

That move was in reaction to Trump’s 25 percent tariff on European steel and aluminum. 

In addition, he’s flirted with implementing tariffs on agricultural goods, lumber, copper, computer chips, pharmaceuticals. 

He proposed blanket tariffs on Colombia – which he dropped. 

Trump also proposed blanket tariffs on the European Union, a top U.S. ally; on Russia, over the war in Ukraine; on any country that buys fuel from Venezuela; and on BRICs nations, for wanting to develop a currency to compete with the U.S. dollar. 

Trump had enacted tariffs on $800 billion worth of goods as of March 21, The Washington Post said.  

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