“I think he wants to keep his options open,” Graff added.
In a series of statements, the White House and the various Cabinet heads said the administration is working together to implement Trump’s vision. “As the movie ‘Drumline’ goes, ‘one band, one sound,’” White House senior adviser for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro said in a statement.
“We are the greatest economic team and April 2nd will be a historic day for American workers,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said that “President Trump has been unequivocally clear for decades about the need to revitalize American industry and restore American Greatness” and that “every member of the Trump administration is aligned on delivering on this vision with an America First agenda of tariffs, deregulation, the unleashing of American energy, and tax cuts.”
Part of the uncertainty stems from the president seeming to undermine his own team at times. After Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett said in recent weeks that only about 10 or 15 countries — or the “dirty 15,” as Bessent put it — would face reciprocal tariffs, Trump said Wednesday that actually every country will be hit with a tariff.
The president similarly undercut Lutnick earlier this month, after the Commerce secretary suggested Canada and Mexico might avoid the full 25 percent Trump had threatened over border security and fentanyl — though two people close to the president said Lutnick was freelancing and has since been told to stay on message. Trump went ahead and slapped that duty on the two North American neighbors on March 4, but then paused much of it a day later and exempted certain goods — a rollercoaster of announcements that left many businesses and investors unsure about how the new tariffs would work.
Indeed, Trump has continued to shift the scope, targets and timeline of his tariffs at a whiplash-inducing pace. The duties he promised, pre-inauguration, to levy on Canada and Mexico his first day in office shifted to Feb. 1, then Feb. 4, then March 4, before being largely rolled back until April 2. There is little clarity about what parts of those tariffs — which could hit more than $1 trillion worth of trade — will go into effect next week.
The size of the so-called reciprocal tariffs, which the administration says it’s calculating for individual trading partners based on their treatment of U.S. imports, could also shift. Administration officials have indicated to foreign diplomats that those duties are meant to be a starting point for negotiations with other countries, meaning American companies may not know what if any tariffs will stick.
Trump also threatened to impose tariffs April 2 on various critical industries, including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, copper and lumber, before indicating in recent days that those tariffs are likely to be delayed.
“We may have sectoral tariffs on April 2, and we may not,” a White House official, granted anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations, said Monday. “No final decisions have been made yet on sectoral tariffs being tacked onto” the reciprocal tariff announcement next week.
Needless to say, the president’s shifting desires have made it difficult to plan, as Cabinet officials have indicated in private. In recent days, Lutnick told U.S. trading partners seeking clarity that he would try to give them a heads up the day before April 2, telling them that the details are too fluid at the moment to preview. Bessent has also admitted to people that the final tariff regime remains a moving target.
