'Willing to take pain': Trump insiders start to fear president has no tariff 'off-ramp'
President Donald Trump remains entrenched in his belief that tariffs will boost the U.S. economy, despite last week's historic sell-off — but MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire said his allies are wondering if there's an off-ramp.
Stock futures jumped by 2 percent Tuesday after another volatile day on Wall Street, which witnessed the highest trading volume in nearly two decades. Lemire reported on "Morning Joe" that Republicans are starting to freak out about the sweeping tariffs against nearly 100 trading partners worldwide and their impact on the American economy.
"That's why so many Republicans are starting to speak out quietly and expressing some anxiety about what's happening here, and there shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that Donald Trump is imposing these tariffs," Lemire said. "What has surprised even some of his staunchest allies is just how big he went, that he went across the board at these huge numbers."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged the president to tighten up his messaging on tariffs, but Lemire said not everyone around Trump supports the policy.
"We are seeing, you mentioned the treasury secretary, some rifts start to emerge within the administration," Lemire said. "Elon Musk has been out there suggesting he's not supportive of these tariffs, doing it on social media. No direct confrontation with the president yet, I am told.
"I have new reporting on this today. The treasury secretary has met with the president – not opposing tariffs, [saying] we need to talk about these differently, we need to talk about end games, we need to give the market something to look towards. But then there are hardliners Peter Navarro, Howard Lutnick, Stephen Miller, who's sort of an overlooked power source in this. They're all pushing for these tariffs, wanting to be punishing China and the rest, and where we are now is Trump, for the moment, is willing to ignore what had been his usual pressure points."
"He's ignoring the slides on Wall Street, he is ignoring unflattering cable news coverage, which in the last day or so has started on Fox News, as well," Lemire added. "After a couple of days of sort of ignoring this, Fox yesterday also started to dwell on the ramifications of this, and right now he is able, he said, he's willing to take the political pain."
Some countries have signaled they're willing to work out a deal to avoid the tariff, and some officials hope that Trump reaches agreements and puts some wins on the board to show his plan is working, Lemire said.
But they aren't sure how much pain he's willing to inflict on the economy before declaring victory.
"The question is for how long, and those around him want to know what is the off-ramp here?" Lemire said. "At the end of the day, everyone assumes Donald Trump will have to declare some sort of victory, but no one quite knows what that victory looks like. Is it simply, is negotiations enough? We heard Japan yesterday. They're going to start, or do they need sort of concrete investments? Because if that's the case, that's going to be a long time."
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