A ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday that Donald Trump overstepped his authority by instituting reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners has given the president a chance to back off his unpopular trade war policies –– but he won't.
Reacting to the ruling where the court stated the use of tariffs was "impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it,” MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire suggested there are those who believe Trump would take advantage of the ruling as an "off-ramp."
"I know there was some speculation last night, some wishful thinking, perhaps from some other Republicans I heard from that this may be an off-ramp for President Trump, that you could blame the courts, but then actually back away from some of the tariffs because of the impact on the markets, because of the impact potentially down the road on the economy," Lemire told the panel. "But this is, Joe [Scarborough], as you well know, the president has believed in for a very long time, and at least now I'm told, he doesn't plan to alter course."
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That led co-host Scarborough to state, "So I'm going to say this slowly so our billionaire friends on Wall Street and our multi-millionaire friends on Wall Street who trade every day can understand it: if you thought that Donald Trump was just talking when he kept campaigning and promising to provide tariffs –– he wasn't."
"He's been saying that since 1987, and I have it on very good authority that the people that are saying Donald Trump is backing down on tariffs and there's an off-ramp, that Donald Trump does not believe there is an off-ramp for tariffs," he continued.
"And people running around saying that he always backs down or he chickens out, why don't you just invite him to put more tariffs on more countries," he joked. "He's not backing down on tariffs. It is one of the driving forces of his political life and his political being. There is no off-ramp, alright? Let me say that again: there is no off-ramp."
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