Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Trump scraps his tariffs on dozens of grocery items as affordability concerns grow

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Trump scraps his tariffs on dozens of grocery items as affordability concerns grow · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: I'm in mounting pressure to tackle rising prices at the
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  Speaker 1: grocery store. The Trump administration says it's taking action. On Friday,
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  Speaker 1: President Trump signed an executive order allowing dozens of products
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  Speaker 1: like coffee, bananas, and beef to be exempted from his
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  Speaker 1: sweeping tariffs. The move marks a notable reversal for Trump,
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  Speaker 1: who has repeatedly insisted tariffs are necessary to protect US
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  Speaker 1: businesses and workers. Let's discuss now with journalist Rick Newman.
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  Speaker 1: He is a former Yahoo Finance columnist who now authors
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  Speaker 1: the substack.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, a newsletter the Ricker for it.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, how are you Rick? Thanks for being with us.
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  Speaker 1: So is this potentially going to make an impact?
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  Speaker 3: I don't think anybody's going to notice, to be honest.
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  Speaker 3: So just to underscore what you just said, Frederica Trump
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  Speaker 3: is removing his own tariffs on what is about? I
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  Speaker 3: don't know. It looks like a couple hundred products. You
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  Speaker 3: can find the whole list of products. I mean. Trump
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  Speaker 3: says he's focusing on stuff that you can't ease, grow
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  Speaker 3: or produce in the United States. So it's coffee that's important.
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  Speaker 3: Coffee is up nineteen percent year every year. It's bananas,
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  Speaker 3: it's pineapples, it's mangoes, it's cinnamon, it's cuman, it's capers.
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  Speaker 3: So all he's doing is taking away the tax that
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  Speaker 3: he imposed on those products earlier this year. I don't
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  Speaker 3: think those products, or at this point, I don't even
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  Speaker 3: think groceries really are are the main thing that is
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  Speaker 3: what people think of as the affordability problem. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot of stuff it's going to get going
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  Speaker 3: up in price by more than income. And Trump has
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  Speaker 3: not said much a lot about a lot of that
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  Speaker 3: stuff yet.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, groceries is just one of the many things
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  Speaker 1: that you know is hitting people hard. I mean, it's
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  Speaker 1: why folks are unable to save. They're spending most of
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  Speaker 1: their earnings. So the Trump administrations, you know, Trade Representative
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  Speaker 1: Jamison Greer was asked yesterday whether the President's tariffs have
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  Speaker 1: raised costs on Americans, and this is what he said.
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  Speaker 4: It depends what the importers do with the tariff.
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  Speaker 2: When you look at the overall price trend, it hasn't
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  Speaker 2: been because of tariff. It's been because of these other
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  Speaker 2: events going on and just supply and demand easy, right.
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  Speaker 3: That's careful parsing. There are a lot of things that
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  Speaker 3: put that effect prices and inflation. Tariffs is one of them.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, there are many economic analyzes that are nonpartisan
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  Speaker 3: on this, and they find that, you know, Trump's let's
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  Speaker 3: say Trump's tariffs as they exist today, if they stand
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  Speaker 3: in place for a year, they're going to add something
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  Speaker 3: like fifteen hundred dollars or eighteen hundred or two thousand
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  Speaker 3: dollars to the cost of a typical household. So tariffs
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  Speaker 3: are just we go back to basics. Tariffs are attacks
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  Speaker 3: that the importer, which can be Walmart, target a wholesaler
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  Speaker 3: or any kind of company. That company, that American company,
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  Speaker 3: has to pay the tax to the US Treasury, so
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  Speaker 3: their costs go up, and they try to pass as
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  Speaker 3: much of those costs onto their own customers as they can,
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  Speaker 3: all the way down to you and me. Now, their
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  Speaker 3: alternative is just to have higher costs and lower profits.
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  Speaker 3: But no company wants to do that. So this is
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  Speaker 3: affecting companies and consumers no matter how you parse it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then there's new data, you know, showing how
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  Speaker 1: tough this affordability crisis is for so many Americans. An
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  Speaker 1: analysis by of America released this this week shows nearly
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  Speaker 1: a quarter of US households are living paycheck to paycheck.
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  Speaker 1: This year, they spend over ninety five percent of their
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  Speaker 1: income on necessities like housing, gasoline, grocery, childcare utilities. So
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  Speaker 1: is that startling to you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I mean it's worrisome for sure. But so
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  Speaker 3: we're calling it the affordability crisis in twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 3: Much of this is not new. I mean, the tariffs
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  Speaker 3: are a new type of pressure, and Trump roll does
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  Speaker 3: out about exactly the wrong time. But this is wealth
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  Speaker 3: inequality and income inequality, in inequality that we've been talking
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  Speaker 3: about for a long time. I mean, we've got a
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  Speaker 3: shareholder class in the United States and we have a
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  Speaker 3: working class in the United States. You're lucky enough to
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  Speaker 3: own stocks and on a home, and you bought that
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  Speaker 3: home and you were able to refinance at three percent
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  Speaker 3: on a mortgage, then you're in good shape. But if
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  Speaker 3: you are trying to buy a new home, you're priced out.
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  Speaker 3: If you're living, if you're living on a paycheck and
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  Speaker 3: you don't have financial assets, you don't feel like you're
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  Speaker 3: getting ahead. So these are long term problems that seem
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  Speaker 3: to be intensifying, and Trump is now the one stuck
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  Speaker 3: having to deal with it, and so far he's been
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  Speaker 3: very toned up to what is a really serious problem
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  Speaker 3: for millions of Americans.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, seriously, tough times for a lot of people. All right,
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  Speaker 1: Rick Newman, thank you so much. Yeah. Trump administration is
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  Speaker 1: scrambling to make good on a campaign promise that, by
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  Speaker 1: his own account, won him reelection to bring prices down.
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  Speaker 1: One solution reversing part of Trump's tariff policy. The President
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  Speaker 1: yesterday signed an executive order to retroactively lower tariffs on beef, tomatoes, coffee,
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  Speaker 1: and bananas. The agricultural items are now included from reciprocal tariffs,
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  Speaker 1: but not the tax entirely. The move comes after Trump
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  Speaker 1: claimed falsely that prices have fallen during his administration. CNN
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  Speaker 1: correspondent Raphael Romo has joining me live from a food
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  Speaker 1: giveaway event in Atlanta, and have things been picking up?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, we saw a lot of activity and the last
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  Speaker 2: couple of hours here, Fred, unfortunately this effort this wrapping up.
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  Speaker 2: But let me tell you, it is one thing to
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  Speaker 2: talk about the state of the economy, inflation, tariffs, and
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  Speaker 2: the government shut down. In an entirely different thing, Fred,
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  Speaker 2: is when you actually see people in need coming to
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  Speaker 2: an event like this one, a food drive, because they
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  Speaker 2: need help. And what the organizers told us is that
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  Speaker 2: they were prepared to help about a thousand families today.
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  Speaker 2: All of the boxes that you see behind me, some
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  Speaker 2: of the tables and the tents, they were set up
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  Speaker 2: so that people would get vegetables, they would get chicken,
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  Speaker 2: they would get potatoes, some non perishables, and we saw
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  Speaker 2: lines of cars lining up here right next to me
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  Speaker 2: picking up all of that food. But the reality is
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  Speaker 2: that the challenge is not over. Fred. And we heard
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  Speaker 2: earlier from doctor Bernice King Determined of the King Center,
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  Speaker 2: who said that even though today was a great day
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  Speaker 2: to help many families in need, they're gracing for what's
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  Speaker 2: coming next, in the next few weeks, in the next
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  Speaker 2: few months. This is what she had to say.
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  Speaker 4: Although the shutdown is over, we know that people are
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  Speaker 4: still suffering, they're still struggling. We're living in very precarious
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  Speaker 4: times and so we want the world to know today
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  Speaker 4: that although the shutdown is over, we have not shut
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  Speaker 4: down our compassion.
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  Speaker 2: And FRED. For this event, two organizations have joined forces.
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  Speaker 2: One of course, is the King Center. The other one
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  Speaker 2: is New Birth Missionary Baptist at church. They are helping
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  Speaker 2: people who are not necessarily thinking about Thanksgiving, even though
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  Speaker 2: we're less than two weeks away. I earlier spoke with
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  Speaker 2: the beneficiary who told me that she didn't even know
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  Speaker 2: what she was going to put on her table tonight
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  Speaker 2: for dinner. This is what she had to say.
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  Speaker 4: It's every day, if tonight, I need dinner for tonight.
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  Speaker 2: So that's how serious it is to me.
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  Speaker 3: It's not trying to get holiday.
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  Speaker 4: So this is going to make a huge, huge difference
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  Speaker 4: in my life.
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  Speaker 2: And finally, Fred, people yes are celebrating the fact that
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  Speaker 2: the government shutdown is over, or celebrating the fact that
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  Speaker 2: the president has decided to lower tariffs on some items,
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  Speaker 2: like you mentioned at the beginning. But the problem is
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  Speaker 2: that this need for many people is not over, and
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  Speaker 2: those actions me a little uh, too little, too late for.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them. Now back to you, Yeah, the needs
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  Speaker 1: are so great and continue to mount. All right, Rafael Romo,
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  Speaker 1: thanks so much.