An anonymous Trump insider who spoke to Politico said the entire tariff conversation was a farce and that Trump would push back the deadline as many times as he needed to to save face.
“Trump knows the most interesting part of his presidency is the tariff conversation,” they shared. “I find it hard to believe he’s going to surrender it that easily. It’s all fake. There’s no deadline. It’s a self-imposed landmark in this theatrical show, and that’s where we are.”
“Insiders hope” might be better phrasing than “insiders admit”. Tariffs at this level weren’t being recommended by anyone besides Trump, because they’re stupid as hell. The right-libertarian wing of the party doesn’t want any kind of tariffs what so ever. The protectionist wing wants some tariffs, but not strong, across the board tariffs like this.
Nobody wants this except Trump. Almost literally nobody. His supporters back it because that’s how cults work. Nobody thinks this is a good idea of their own accord.