Key test for President Donald Trump's tariff campaign: unifying team behind his strategy
President Donald Trump said this week that there will "always be transition difficulty" tied to a new economic plan. Credit: Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker
WASHINGTON — Over the next three months President Donald Trump and his economic team are planning to renegotiate dozens of foreign trade deals, an undertaking that business leaders say will require the president’s team to project unity or risk further roiling the economy.
Since taking office Trump’s cabinet and top officials have usually acted in lockstep, but Trump’s tariff gambit has emerged as a divisive part of his second term agenda, pitting top officials against one other in a manner unseen since his first term when a revolving door of top aides competed for his attention.
During the weeklong period between Trump’s global tariff launch and his declaration of a 90-day pause, his top economic advisers gave conflicting messages about the longevity of Trump’s plan and his willingness to negotiate new trade deals, all as two key advisers — Peter Navarro and Elon Musk — engaged in a public spat over tariff strategy.
The next 12 weeks will test the ability of Trump and his team to negotiate dozens of new deals while keeping a lid on any internal division that may cause markets to tumble, said local business leaders and political analysts interviewed by Newsday.
"Forget the next 90 days, in the next 14 days, people want to see certainty in the market," said Andy Sabin, owner of the East Hampton based Sabin Metal Corporation. "People don’t like this uncertainty. You don’t know what he’s going to say tomorrow."
Sabin, a Trump supporter and donor, told Newsday in a phone interview: "Unless he gets his act together, we’re going to have a real bumpy road."
Manhattan Billionaire John Catsimatidis, whose portfolio of companies include the Gristedes supermarket chain, told Newsday in a phone interview that he may have taken a different approach than Trump in rolling out the reciprocal tariffs all at once, but he ultimately believed that Trump was leaning on his business instincts to seek new deals.
"What he wants is for people to sit down and negotiate a fair deal for the United States of America," Catsimatidis said. "Maybe I would have done it differently, but he is the president, and at the end of the day I think he recognizes that if the United States wins, Donald Trump wins."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, has emerged as the public face for Trump’s tariff agenda. He appeared alongside White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday, minutes after Trump announced the 90-days pause on social media, to tell reporters "this was [Trump’s] strategy all along," assuring the American Bankers Association at its annual conference that the American economy is "very solid," and responding to Trump’s question about the market volatility during a televised Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
"We will end up in a place of great certainty over the next 90 days on tariffs," Bessent said at the meeting.
Trump has leaned more on Bessent after his economic team initially delivered divergent messages on the tariff rollout. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade adviser Navarro, appearing on the cable TV circuit, insisted Trump was not looking to cut deals and would stay the course as part of a long-term push to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing, messages that appeared to spook the markets. Bessent meanwhile, on social media, had signaled that Trump was "open" to negotiating with other countries.
Christopher Malone, a political science professor at Farmingdale State College, said the challenge for the White House will be relaying a consistent message when Bessent and Lutnick, and Navarro are "on completely different planets when it comes to tariffs."
"Going forward for the next 90 days, I don’t see how anyone can expect any kind of consistent messaging," Malone said. “[Trump] says all the time he makes these decisions instinctively ... so how do you go out and try to be his surrogates and communications mouthpieces when he changes his strategy at the drop of a dime?"
Hofstra University finance professor Andrew C. Spieler said consistent messaging around a president’s economic agenda is critical for ginning up confidence in the economy.
"One of the things that you preach in economics, you try and preach transparency," Spieler said in a phone interview with Newsday. "Policy shifts like this are kind of radical, and if they suddenly change, and then the next day, you have something that's contradictory to what you said the day before, this confuses everybody, and at the end of the day, what are you going to do as a consumer or producer? You're probably going to view this uncertainty and be more conservative. So you're going to spend less, produce less, and that creates contraction."
Trump has faced criticism from some Wall Street titans, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who said this week that pursuing a tariff agenda would lead to price increases and fuel concerns of a recession.
"America First is fine, as long as it doesn’t end up being America alone," Dimon said in a letter to shareholders. "If the Western world’s military and economic alliances were to fragment, America itself would inevitably weaken over time."
Trump, at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, defended his approach by saying there would "always be transition difficulty" tied to a new economic plan.
Trump’s tariff pause suspends reciprocal tariffs on some 70 countries, but keeps a 10% blanket tariff on all foreign imports. Trump raised tariffs on China to 145%, prompting Beijing to respond on Friday with 125 % tariffs on American goods.
Trump told reporters despite the escalation he believes both sides would "end up working something out that’s very good for both countries."
"I think you're going to see historic deals one after the other," Trump said.
WASHINGTON — Over the next three months President Donald Trump and his economic team are planning to renegotiate dozens of foreign trade deals, an undertaking that business leaders say will require the president’s team to project unity or risk further roiling the economy.
Since taking office Trump’s cabinet and top officials have usually acted in lockstep, but Trump’s tariff gambit has emerged as a divisive part of his second term agenda, pitting top officials against one other in a manner unseen since his first term when a revolving door of top aides competed for his attention.
During the weeklong period between Trump’s global tariff launch and his declaration of a 90-day pause, his top economic advisers gave conflicting messages about the longevity of Trump’s plan and his willingness to negotiate new trade deals, all as two key advisers — Peter Navarro and Elon Musk — engaged in a public spat over tariff strategy.
The next 12 weeks will test the ability of Trump and his team to negotiate dozens of new deals while keeping a lid on any internal division that may cause markets to tumble, said local business leaders and political analysts interviewed by Newsday.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Over the next three months President Donald Trump and his economic team are planning to renegotiate dozens of foreign trade deals, an undertaking that business leaders say will require the president’s team to project unity or risk further roiling the economy.
- Trump’s tariff gambit has emerged as a divisive part of his second term agenda, pitting top officials against one other in a manner unseen since his first term when a revolving door of top aides competed for his attention.
- The next 12 weeks will test the ability of Trump and his team to negotiate dozens of deals while keeping a lid on any internal division that may cause markets to tumble, said local business leaders and political analysts.
"Forget the next 90 days, in the next 14 days, people want to see certainty in the market," said Andy Sabin, owner of the East Hampton based Sabin Metal Corporation. "People don’t like this uncertainty. You don’t know what he’s going to say tomorrow."
Sabin, a Trump supporter and donor, told Newsday in a phone interview: "Unless he gets his act together, we’re going to have a real bumpy road."
Manhattan Billionaire John Catsimatidis, whose portfolio of companies include the Gristedes supermarket chain, told Newsday in a phone interview that he may have taken a different approach than Trump in rolling out the reciprocal tariffs all at once, but he ultimately believed that Trump was leaning on his business instincts to seek new deals.
"What he wants is for people to sit down and negotiate a fair deal for the United States of America," Catsimatidis said. "Maybe I would have done it differently, but he is the president, and at the end of the day I think he recognizes that if the United States wins, Donald Trump wins."
Aiming for certainty
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, has emerged as the public face for Trump’s tariff agenda. He appeared alongside White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday, minutes after Trump announced the 90-days pause on social media, to tell reporters "this was [Trump’s] strategy all along," assuring the American Bankers Association at its annual conference that the American economy is "very solid," and responding to Trump’s question about the market volatility during a televised Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
"We will end up in a place of great certainty over the next 90 days on tariffs," Bessent said at the meeting.
Trump has leaned more on Bessent after his economic team initially delivered divergent messages on the tariff rollout. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade adviser Navarro, appearing on the cable TV circuit, insisted Trump was not looking to cut deals and would stay the course as part of a long-term push to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing, messages that appeared to spook the markets. Bessent meanwhile, on social media, had signaled that Trump was "open" to negotiating with other countries.
Christopher Malone, a political science professor at Farmingdale State College, said the challenge for the White House will be relaying a consistent message when Bessent and Lutnick, and Navarro are "on completely different planets when it comes to tariffs."
"Going forward for the next 90 days, I don’t see how anyone can expect any kind of consistent messaging," Malone said. “[Trump] says all the time he makes these decisions instinctively ... so how do you go out and try to be his surrogates and communications mouthpieces when he changes his strategy at the drop of a dime?"
Selling the agenda
Hofstra University finance professor Andrew C. Spieler said consistent messaging around a president’s economic agenda is critical for ginning up confidence in the economy.
"One of the things that you preach in economics, you try and preach transparency," Spieler said in a phone interview with Newsday. "Policy shifts like this are kind of radical, and if they suddenly change, and then the next day, you have something that's contradictory to what you said the day before, this confuses everybody, and at the end of the day, what are you going to do as a consumer or producer? You're probably going to view this uncertainty and be more conservative. So you're going to spend less, produce less, and that creates contraction."
Trump has faced criticism from some Wall Street titans, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who said this week that pursuing a tariff agenda would lead to price increases and fuel concerns of a recession.
"America First is fine, as long as it doesn’t end up being America alone," Dimon said in a letter to shareholders. "If the Western world’s military and economic alliances were to fragment, America itself would inevitably weaken over time."
Trump, at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, defended his approach by saying there would "always be transition difficulty" tied to a new economic plan.
Trump’s tariff pause suspends reciprocal tariffs on some 70 countries, but keeps a 10% blanket tariff on all foreign imports. Trump raised tariffs on China to 145%, prompting Beijing to respond on Friday with 125 % tariffs on American goods.
Trump told reporters despite the escalation he believes both sides would "end up working something out that’s very good for both countries."
"I think you're going to see historic deals one after the other," Trump said.
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
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Newsday Live Author Series: Michael Symon Newsday Live and Long Island LitFest present a conversation with James Beard Award–winning chef, restaurateur and New York Times bestselling author Michael Symon. Newsday's Elisa DiStefano hosts an in-depth discussion about the chef's life and new book, "Symon's Dinners Cooking Out," with recipes for simple dinners as well as entertaining a crowd.
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