Is Trump Serious About Tariffs?

Playbook: “Trump made similar threats last time he was in the White House, but never quite followed through. At various points during the campaign he floated a 200 percent tariff on Mexican cars, an up-to-100 percent tariff on other Mexican products and levies of 60 percent or more on Chinese products.”

“None of those ever came to pass. He did levy during his first term more targeted tariffs on China, and his threats against our North American neighbors made way for one of his bipartisan policy victories: the negotiation of NAFTA. So forgive Xi Jinping and Claudia Sheinbaum for taking last night’s threats as the beginning of a negotiation — as Trump himself hinted in his posts.”