Trump Celebrates Disruption in Speech to Congress, and Avoids the Costs

What has never happened is tariffs being used, as Trump did (this week), as a hammer to get other countries to halt the flow of illegal immigrants or fentanyl,

Alan Wolff, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization, told CNN

Tariffs are a valid, and often useful, industrial policy tool that can provide narrow and targeted protection for key sectors,

they noted

There’s a reason these policy tools exist,

Claudia Sahm, chief economist at New Century Advisors, said in an interview

A trade war produces no winners,

Porter told CNN

So, say a country is just mass producing and dumping large quantities of goods into another country,

she said

Tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs, they’re about protecting the soul of our country,

he said

There is great uncertainty about future business activity due to the risk of tariffs and other potential government actions,

one firm in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting space said in the ISM survey

Mark Zandichief economist

It feels like the economy is gagging on the uncertainty. And the longer the uncertainty hangs around, the more likely the economy is going to start choking,

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan earlier this week, referring to not just trade uncertainty but that over taxes, immigration and federal budget cuts

Tariffs are going to have a ripple down effect that could severely harm our business,

one information sector firm said

It’s frustrating and stressful,

Trevor Frampton, who owns a feed and pet supply store in Santa Rosa, California, said of the back-and-forth nature of the tariff threats

Nela Richardsonchief economist

Our data, combined with other recent indicators, suggests a hiring hesitancy among employers as they assess the economic climate ahead,

Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said in the report

Having invested millions in a plant to manufacture the Q5 in Mexico, primarily for the U.S., just one decade ago, that facility all of a sudden looks like a white elephant investment,

said Matthias Schmidt, a European auto analyst

Daniel Sperlingamerican academic

For EVs in the U.S., this is somewhere between problematic and a disaster,

said Dan Sperling, a former California Air Resources Board member and director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis

Shout out to the Department of Energy funding for this,

said Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo

The reality is that a month is nowhere near enough time for automakers to relocate factories or reconfigure supply chains,

said Jessica Caldwell, an auto market analyst for Edmunds

Daniel Sperlingamerican academic

You’re going to disproportionately increase the cost of EVs, and now you take away the incentives,

Sperling said

The Department of Energy is funding a lot of these innovations, and they’ve been doing it through the federal labs,

he said

If gas prices are higher, that might actually work in favor of people wanting to buy more electric vehicles to reduce their fuel costs,

he said

We’ve been advising clients, like, don’t look at this as a first 100-day thing. This is going to be the pace for the next three years and 10 months,

Cutler told PI

Doug Fordontario Premier

There’s always that hope that these won’t last long, and you don’t want to create a big ruckus out of nothing, not for something that could go away quickly,

another lobbyist told Doug and Ari