Journalist: It is the happy day of liberation, says President Trump. But the least looks are happy. The bag had a lousy first quarter. The S&P 500 fell 5%. Since Trump assumed he sank 8%. And after his last record, on February 19, since the president confirmed that his tariff preaching was serious, the decline reached 10.7%. It is the worst correction since 2022 …
Q.: Trump knew how to be the most pro stock president of all time, said Jeremy Siegel, Wharton’s professor. The persistent rise of Wall Street was your personal presentation card. The visible achievement that was cast in the face of any critic. Trump 2.0 is another story.
Q.: What is the true Trump?
GG: These are his genuine ideas. And it is the agenda in which he believes and the one who won the election. The first Trump – who could fully share it – did not dare to push it thoroughly. He had less power and was more aware of his inexperience in government management and his limitations. This is a president who is back, who achieved the feat of being re -elected despite everything, even of the coup in the Capitol. It is an imperial Trump. It does not govern the US only, but the world (if they leave it). He is willing to do what he thinks, without asking anyone’s opinion or permission. It does not recognize another authority than yours. And that includes district judges as much as the stock quotes. Nor does it have opposition, but you will have it. That is why his hurry for taking advantage of this window.
Q.: With an imperial agenda, too. Geographical expansionism is a novelty, which, by the way, did not undergo the opinion of the voter.
GG: Buying Manhattan, buying Alaska, was not decided by the popular vote. He wants to buy Greenland, if he gets it, he knows that the story will endorse it. At the moment, it is more an element of pressure than something else.
Q.: The idea was America first, make the US larger. The results are the opposites. More progress with tariffs, more sinks, isn’t it?
GG: The agenda you want to apply is harmful, even if it is popular. I had to dose it. Do not exaggerate. The inheritance he received is very good. And he is undermining her very quickly. In his first mandate, the bag marked the limits, it was his containment dike. Now that he learned a truth, that the stock market is not the real economy, he is not afraid to go against the bench. It should be his economic team to warn him, and calm him, but he doesn’t. It will be the reality, then.
Q.: When shocking.
GG: As is. The rise of tariffs on cars is going to touch a living nerve of the voters. Prices, leasing costs, insurance, spare parts, repairs, rental cars, transport. All that will rise quickly. The local and the imported. How will the speech continue to be sold for tariffs to be paid by foreigners? Trump promised to lower inflation from day one and what he is promoting is the opposite.
Q.: What is known about what you want to do this Wednesday, the day of liberation? It became a plans salad.
GG: Trump has said very different things in different days. His own people, off The Record, says it is not clear what the president will decide. Publicly admitted Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council. “The president received a lot of detailed analysis, and I’m sure he will make the right decision.”
Q.: How do you get out of this quagmire?
GG: Tariffs are much less harmful than the uncertainty Trump Motoriza without breathing. The problem is that the White House does not end up defining what is intended. If I had a complete, taxative list, we would be better oriented. The reciprocity seemed the final destination, but Trump, the last days, seemed more interested in a universal, uniform tariff, applicable to all countries.
Q.: The Washington Post speaks of a 20%tax.
GG: This is a kermesse, with new attractions every day. In this context, important decisions cannot be made. And that is the drama. The paralysis it causes.
Q.: Why does Trump not warn it?
GG: Trump accounts for the promises of investing in the US that he receives, which by the way are many, as if they were contant and sound growth. It is fascinated with those promises. Uncertainty serves him: it is his main message. It will be impossible to sell in the US, in the largest market in the world, without having a local manufacturing base. Because he is going to design all kinds of measures to harm access to the market. If you do not reach with these tariffs, it will apply others. It excites it, one could say, the outstanding dream of import substitution, completely oblivious to what costs and productivity can be.
Q.: Paradoxically, at the same time destroy the confidence of the consumer and local producers, and shrinks that great market perhaps to the point of pushing it to a recession.
GG: He still doesn’t understand. And he does not attend, for now, another compass than his instinct. Being like this, what could go wrong? We already saw the fall of the first quarter bag, it should have been a touch of attention. But it wasn’t and goes for more.
Source: Ambito
