1k
499
0
199
388
3471Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci came out swinging this week, warning that while President Donald Trump genuinely believes in the tariff policy he’s pushing, the real concern lies with the people around him who know better and still go along with it.
Scaramucci, speaking on The Rest Is Politics US podcast with journalist Katty Kay, called Trump’s announcement of massive tariffs on over 100 countries an “economic own goal” that Wall Street is now calling “Liquidation Day.”
“Trump has just dropped the hammer on global trade,” Scaramucci said. “He calls it Liberation Day. Us here on Wall Street call it Liquidation Day.”
‘The Enablers Who Know Better? They’re Worse’
Scaramucci summed up his frustration in a tweet: “Trump actually believes in this nonsense that he is perpetrating. This guys bobble head enablers who know better are worse. At least Rand Paul has the guts to explain how stupid this is.”
Kay noted that Trump appears emboldened by the move, not discouraged.
Despite his approval rating on trade sinking to 36%, he believes the policy will prove him right.
“The more people who say he’s wrong…the more he wants to show them that actually Donald Trump is the person who is right,” she said.
Markets in Turmoil
The tariffs are severe: a total 54% tariff on Chinese goods, 20% on EU products, and similarly steep penalties for U.S. allies like Japan, Vietnam, and even Australia.
The shock has sent stock markets tumbling and gold to record highs.
“The markets are freaking out,” Scaramucci said, adding that he’s been up since 4 a.m. trying to protect his clients at SkyBridge Capital. “This has done systemic damage.”
Ideology Over Economics
According to Katty Kay, Trump’s belief that trade deficits are inherently bad for America has been driving this push for tariffs for decades.
“He’s surrounded by people in the White House who have this very ideological purity about tariffs, and they want to transform the global trade system at whatever cost,” Kay said.
Trump has framed the move as necessary to bring back manufacturing, create jobs, and raise revenue.
But experts say it could result in higher prices, less competitiveness, and a real risk of recession.
“Every economist that you speak to… will say this is a disaster for the American economy,” Kay noted. “Trump doesn’t believe that. In a sense, he’s daring the world economic system to prove him wrong.”
No Logic to the Math
Scaramucci also criticized the way the tariffs were calculated.
“They took the trade deficit as part of the function… it’s not even logical what they did,” he said. “You’re now telling people you’re a very malevolent guy.”
Even Wall Street veterans like the current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a longtime opponent of tariffs, have struggled to defend the policy. “They sent the Secretary of the Treasury out last night to try to defend it. He couldn’t.”
A Dangerous Message to the World
The implications, Scaramucci argued, go far beyond economics. “This is four or five sigmas away from anything that the Americans have put together in the last 80, frankly 90 years,” he said.
“This is not something you can look at and say, ‘Oh Trump got on the wrong side of the bed.'”
Kay added that Trump is even hitting small nations that barely trade with the U.S. “There was a benevolence to our soft power… he’s lost the plot of what America is to most Americans.”
Global Backlash Is Already Building
According to a message sent to Kay during the recording, European Union officials are preparing to respond. “Make no mistake, there will be retaliation,” one said.
Countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and Germany have already condemned the move and are planning countermeasures. Even small allies in Asia and Africa have been hit by tariffs.
With markets reeling and U.S. allies openly planning retaliation, the coming weeks may reveal whether this strategy results in economic pain that forces a course correction — or if Trump, and his enablers, are willing to stay the course no matter the cost.
1k4990199
3883471
