American economic officials expressed their views and different roles in Mr. Trump’s tax attack, such as the strategy of “juggling” to achieve the highest efficiency.
President Donald Trump on April 2 announced a 10% tax imposition plan for all imported goods to the US from April 5. Later, since April 9, a series of US trading partners suffered a higher reciprocal tax rate, up to 50%.
In this process, Trade Minister Howard Lutnick and Trade Advisor Peter Navarro are two official officials on behalf of Mr. Trump on behalf of Mr. Trump to make a tough tariff message to partners, including statements like the United States will not negotiate or multiply the published tax rates.
But only half a day after the tax attack took effect, Mr. Trump announced the 90 -day reciprocal taxponation with most economies to negotiate. Shortly thereafter, Finance Minister Scott Bessent appeared in the White House to answer the press about the decision to postpone taxation, while Lutnick and Navarro were absent in the media.
Observers evaluate this move showing that President Trump seems to have played the role of “good people, bad guys” for their senior advisors, so that they juggled in the process of announcing tax policies to achieve the highest efficiency in pressure and negotiate with partners.
“In this strategy, Bessent is playing the role of ‘good police’, helping to avoid sparking a global trade war,” said William Alan Reinsch, former leader of the US National Trade Council. “And Mr. Lutnick and Mr. Navarro plays ‘bad police’.”
According to Katie Shonk, a researcher at Harvard Business School, “Good police, bad police” is a role strategy to gain negotiation with another party. The group implementing this strategy often consists of a “behavioral behavior, hostility and attack”, while the other “shows sympathy, friendliness, and non -threat”.
The negotiator belongs to the “good side” aims to gain confidence and let the opponent voluntarily give in, because they tend to avoid unattractive suggestions from the “bad side”.
According to American media, Mr. Trump’s reciprocal tax plan was involved in Bessent’s construction, Mr. Lutnick, Mr. Navarro and commercial representative Jamieson Greer. Of these, Mr. Navarro has the toughest view of tariffs, and Mr. Lutnick is between Bessent and Mr. Navarro.
Navarro always considers tariffs as a tool to enhance budget and revive production for the US. In public statements, he affirmed that the reciprocal tax plan was “unable to negotiate” and “this is a national emergency situation”, causing many allies in Mr. Trump’s Republican Party to worry about a world’s number one war that can push the world’s number one economy into a recession.
Navarro’s tough and fierce statements sparked a crack within the Trump administration, when billionaire Elon Musk publicly criticized this commercial adviser “his mind lost the bricks”.
“The drastic view and the tough attitude help Navarro become an important piece in Mr. Trump’s plan,” said the source of the White House.Hill. “You need a bugs who specialize in the threats of major trade barriers. And when they have to negotiate, Navarro just needs to stand behind the scenes to create the power of negotiations for President Trump.”
The second source of news said Navarro has fulfilled the role of “bad police”, so that Mr. Trump and Bessent can be “good police”.
Minister Lutnick also proved tough on reciprocal taxes. He claimed that “this is not a problem that can negotiate for a few weeks” and President Trump “does not joke, will not delay”.
In the process of trade negotiations with the provinces in Canada before, Mr. Lutnick coordinated and “juggled” with the Interior Minister Doug Burgum. The two officials became a good – bad couple to pressure the Canadian side, Kevin O’Leary, Canadian businessman who was closely related to Ottawa.CNN. “Lutnick really does the role of ‘bad police’.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Bessent has a cautious view of tariffs. Some observers believe that this stance, along with the long -term experience of the Finance Minister in the bond market, helped him to have a voice than Mr. Lutnick and Navarro.
“I think the situation happened was that Mr. Trump initially did not pay attention to the bond market” when announcing the reciprocal tax policy, Mr. Reinsch, currently an economic expert at the International Center for Strategy and Research (CSIS), said. “And Mr. Bessent helped Mr. Trump realize the situation.”
The US Treasury bond market shook after Mr. Trump announced the reciprocal tax. The 10 -year bond yield, considered to be a safe shelter when the market fluctuates, has the strongest week since 2001. The US bond market is considered too big to be affected by small changes in demand. Therefore, this market fluctuates means having serious problems.
PoliticoOn April 10 quoted the Bessent Minister, the main bridge of the White House to the financial market, now the person in charge of negotiating with US trading partners in three months of reciprocal tax postponement.
Mr. Bessent was tasked with negotiating about 90 trade agreements with partners, highly likely to start with Japan and South Korea, the two countries want to quickly resolve disagreements. Mr. Lutnick may participate in negotiations and Navarro and a number of other officials such as commercial representatives Jamieson Greer plays a support role.
The director of the US National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said on April 14 that the Trump administration was almost reached a trade agreement with more than 10 countries after the negotiation process, but only announced when “the president was satisfied with them”.
Some experts predict that Bessent in the coming time will have a more prominent role in tariff policy, becoming a “Trump administration’s economic policy spokesman”.
Terry Haines, founder of the Pangaea Policy consultant, believes that the Trump administration “deliberately” gave many voices that seemed to be opposite to each other about tariff issues. “They want many people to speak as possible, state the differences, causing the media to fill the viewpoint. This tactic can make the market panic, but bring political efficiency,” Haides said.
Haines said that after the juggling process, the role of each adviser next to President Trump became more prominent, when the negotiation process was promoted. “We need to know who to listen to. And everything is gradually becoming clear that it is Minister Bessent,” he said.
