'Hang Up The Phone': Ex-Trump Aide Urges Countries Not To Speak To President After Tariffs

Donald Trump’s former spokesman urged countries not to call the US president over his new tariffs.

The White House unveiled a series of taxes on international imports last week which have sent the global stock markets into a state of chaos – and triggered predictions of a recession.

With a base rate of 10% tariffs – stretching up to a whopping 34% which Trump slapped on Chinese goods – and a global levy of 25% on cars and steel products, many leaders are now desperate to secure exemptions in US trade deals.

The US national economic council director, Kevin Hassett, said on Sunday that more than 50 countries have been reaching out to Trump to “begin a negotiation”.

But, according to Anthony Scaramucci – who served as Trump’s White House communications director for just 10 days in 2017 – countries should not be talking to Trump right now.

“He just wants you talking about him. He’s absolutely thrilled he’s got Wall Street upset, he’s got the banking community upset,” the former financier told Times Radio.

“That’s the number one thing he wants. If he wanted to solve a problem, he would certainly not handle it this way with this level of hostility, the bellicose rhetoric, the erratic diplomacy.”

“I wouldn’t be calling him,” Scaramucci said. “My advice to them is to hang up the phone, stop calling him, and let this thing ride itself out, because he’s going to be forced to capitulate.

“The market and the American people are going to force him to capitulate.

“Think like prime minister [Mark] Carney, don’t let the guy bully you, hang up the phone.”

Carney – the former Bank of England governor who is now the Canadian PM – has taken a particularly firm stance against the Trump administration.

Speaking after the White House imposed a 25% of Canadian goods, Carney said: “We are going to fight these tariffs with countermeasures, we are going to protect our workers and we are going to build the strongest economy in the G7.”

Meanwhile, China has hit the US with reciprocal 54% tariffs, and warned Trump: “There are no winners in trade wars, and there is no way out for protectionism.”

Scaramucci’s advice to world leaders comes a week after he told Matt Forde’s Political Party Live that Trump was trying to “Brexit” the US from the rest of the world.