U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday bore down on his administration's latest message that the exclusion of smartphones and computers from his reciprocal tariffs on China will be short-lived, pledging a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector.
Those electronics "are just moving to a different Tariff 'bucket,'" Trump said in a social media post. "We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations."
The White House had announced the exclusions from steep reciprocal tariffs on Friday.
Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, earlier on Sunday said that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.
The exclusions announced on Friday were seen as a big break for technology firms such as Apple and Dell Technologies that rely on imports from China.
Trump's back-and-forth on tariffs last week triggered the wildest swings on Wall Street since the COVID pandemic of 2020. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index is down more than 10% since Trump took office on January 20.
Lutnick said Trump would enact "a special focus-type of tariff" on smartphones, computers and other electronics products in a month or two, alongside sectoral tariffs targeting semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. The new duties would fall outside Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs, under which levies on Chinese imports climbed to 125% last week, he said.
"He's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two," Lutnick said in an interview on ABC's "This Week," predicting that the levies would bring production of those products to the United States. "These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America."
Beijing increased its own tariffs on U.S. imports to 125% on Friday in response. On Sunday, before Lutnick's comments, China said it was evaluating the impact of the exclusions for the technology products implemented late on Friday.
"The bell on a tiger's neck can only be untied by the person who tied it," China's Ministry of Commerce said.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump's run for president but who has criticized the tariffs, on Sunday called on him to pause the broad and steep reciprocal tariffs on China for three months, as Trump did for most countries last week.
If Trump paused Chinese tariffs for 90 days and cut them to 10% temporarily, "he would achieve the same objective in causing U.S. businesses to relocate their supply chains from China without the disruption and risk," Ackman wrote on X.
'CHANGES EVERY DAY'
Sven Henrich, founder and lead market strategist for NorthmanTrader, was harshly critical of how the tariff issue was being handled on Sunday.
"Sentiment check: The biggest rally of the year would come on the day Lutnick gets fired," Henrich wrote on X. "I suggest the administration figures out who controls the message, whatever it is, as it changes every day. US business can't plan or invest with the constant back and forth."
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, criticized the latest revision to Trump's tariff plan, which economists have warned could dent economic growth and fuel inflation.
"There is no tariff policy - only chaos and corruption," Warren said on ABC's "This Week," speaking before Trump's latest post on social media.
In a notice to shippers late on Friday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency published a list of tariff codes excluded from the import taxes. It featured 20 product categories, including computers, laptops, disc drives, semiconductor devices, memory chips and flat panel displays.
In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said the U.S. has opened an invitation to China to negotiate, but he criticized China's connection to the lethal fentanyl supply chain and did not include it on a list of seven entities - the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Israel - with which he said the administration was in talks.
Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that there were no plans yet for Trump to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping on tariffs, accusing China of creating trade friction by responding with levies of its own. But he expressed hopes for some non-Chinese deals.
"My goal is to get meaningful deals before 90 days, and I think we're going to be there with several countries in the next few weeks," Greer said.
Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of the world's biggest hedge fund, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he was worried about the United States sliding into recession, or worse, as a result of the tariffs.
"Right now we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession," Dalio said on Sunday. "And I'm worried about something worse than a recession if this isn't handled well."
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
65 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
Just two more weeks!!!
wallace
Trump is causing supply chain chaos with his tariff flip-flopping.
bass4funk
Good, keep them on edge
Bob Fosse
’Them’ also includes Americans who own something containing a semiconductor. You know, all of them.
wallace
Keeping American businesses on"the edge" is no way to deal with it. Businesses need certainty, not tariff changes daily. How can they run it like that?
Ah_so
Chaos, utter chaos.
But it looks like Trump has got the message that tariffs might actually increase prices in the USA.
ROFL.
bass4funk
Again, keep them on edge
deanzaZZR
In a surprise to no one with a brain, China has cards to play.
China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies
Beijing has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world’s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/business/china-rare-earths-exports.html
plasticmonkey
They don’t know what they’re doing. Trump is insane and he’s surrounded by incompetent sycophants.
wallace
You seem to have little understanding of how manufacturing businesses operate.
lincolnman
Nutnick is an absolute idiot - every time he goes on TV he melts down...
He's just one of Trump"s Cabal of the Clueless...
They're crashing our economy, just as they always do...and it will take Dem President to save it...as history repeats itself...
This time though, you wonder if there will be any economy left to save...
NZ
real clown.
China should stop export of all pc,phones etc to USA asap.
full stop.
quercetum
You can say that again.
GuruMick
Erik...good post.
wallace
The majority of JT are living in Japan, not the US.
Tokyo Guy
China's just effectively announced that they're shutting off access to certain minerals critical to the manufacture of things like smartphones. And that's not "access to the USA", it's "access", period.
Pretty baller move for a country which "doesn't hold the cards".
patkim
Let's not forget that Trump's so-called calculation for trade deficits with countries is very suspect. Numerous economists have pointed out that his and Navarro (aka Ron Vara)'s calculations does not account for a number of factors. It is why certain countries that doesn't even impose tariffs on the U.S. have been included. It is why even uninhabited countries have been included. It is why countries where the U.S. has no trade deficit with, is included. Trump just started with a base of 10% for all countries whether or or not the other country has tariffs placed on U.S. imports.
wallace
The US currently makes zero of the world's leading-edge semiconductor chips.
TaiwanIsNotChina
There will be no investments in the US while people are on the edge.
lincolnman
On the edge of bankruptcy...or more likely fully into it...
These type of comments really highlight how deep the cult goes...
No one with any sense of business says "keep then in chaos, uncertainty, and with forced higher costs"...
At least all those that haven't bankrupted a casino...
TaiwanIsNotChina
They definitely weren't slashing medicaid and snap like MAGA. I have to keep in mind that MAGAs implicitly add "is spent on" when they talk about families.
TaiwanIsNotChina
We design plenty, though, and I presume we have a say where they go from there.
Blacklabel
Tariffs: bad
no tariffs: also bad
tariffs again: bad
plasticmonkey
I'm not POTUS or working for him, but I know what experts are saying. It doesn't take a genius to figure out this is all destructive nonsense.
lincolnman
More like;
100% tariffs good...even great...
No negotiation...ever...
No pause....period...
Maybe 100% tariffs not so good...
Maybe we will negotiate....
I WANT A PAUSE!
HopeSpringsEternal
Entire world will hugely benefit from re-shoring to US, due to greater supply chain diversification, production capabilities, capacity etc. to help to better ensure Global Economy's far more resilient with greater growth potential
Naturally, areas of tech. like chips especially crucial to global economic security, DJT's changing the status quo in order to safeguard the entire global economy from dangerous risky over-reliance on China, Taiwan, etc.
Peter Neil
It’ll take at least a decade to recover from Trump’s tariff insanity.
Not much else to say.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The overarching theme:
Idiocy: bad
elephant200
Trump's flip floping and sabotaging is hurting his own countrymen/women, he is unmature and lacking confidence to his own. He is hurting America's economy and credibility making nobody wants to do business with U.S. and nobody trust you nobody believes Americans anymore. What a great opportunity for China buildup in the world.
Trump has no policy stability and certainty , he even doesn't honor the terms and clauses written on contract. When did you find such a worst president of U.S. in history? YES, President Hoover was the last one , the guy who triggered 1929 downfall, here we go again ！
lincolnman
Sen (R) Ron Johnson is as big of a Trump suck-up as there is....so when he starts whining about tariffs, it shows things are imploding in MAGA-world...
"Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said on Sunday said he’s questioning President Trump’s “endgame” in his approach to tariffs, saying the ongoing “volatility” isn’t good for businesses.
“One thing I learned in the private sector is unpredictability can work pretty well in the negotiation, but the private sector — businesses want certainty. They want stability. They don’t like to see volatility,” Johnson said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
“And, so, I’ve just been questioning exactly what’s the endgame here? What’s the strategy?” he continued."
Jimizo
Do you think that the uncertainty created is good?
You don’t seem to have an opinion on this.
lincolnman
You've probably seen, it changes each day...whatever Trump comes out with that contradicts himself from the day before he agrees with...
Yesterday: Total tariffs great, we'll never negotiate, and we'll never pause...
Today: Limited tariffs OK, negotiation good, pausing is "winning"....
Flip-floppery....
HopeSpringsEternal
Silicon Valley massively moved into the DJT camp in Nov vs. 2020, because under the Biden Admin, they were over-regulated, M&A and IPOs dried up etc.
Turns out Tech is not right or left, but rather Libertarian, the want the right to innovate and create. These days, much innovation is hardware and manufacturing related
These same libertarian tech folks understand DJT's reshoring manufacturing agenda crucial to tech now, as more and more tech. is deployed across ALL Industries.
Nobody in tech. wants to rely on China for hardware, too risky, expensive and slow, plus it damages innovation!
Blacklabel
uncertainty is always good for negotiations, yes.
the stock market is even recovering quite well by now. Up again today, Nikkei and US pre-market.
Tokyo Guy
What I want to know is this.
When Trump does us all a favour and shuffles off to the great Mar-a-Lago in the sky, it will (presumably) be the Insulting Hillbilly who takes over. Given that he seems to lack the charisma to keep the cult-like nature of the GOP going, then if he continues with the tariffs / Trump's policies in general and the country continues to see its economy crater while it makes enemies of EBR (Everyone But Russia), will we then see the scales fall from the eyes of the MAGA faithful?
Or will the spell be unbroken even if it's Vance?
Could be the difference between "the damage will take years to fix" and "the damage will not be fixed".
lincolnman
Repubs know these tariffs are political suicide...and now they're starting to say it...
"Republican lawmakers say there’s a good chance that President Trump’s trade war will boomerang on Republicans politically in 2026, as rising prices and shrinking growth could offset other accomplishments by the GOP.
Republican senators are pointing to the 1932 and 1982 elections as historical examples of when trade wars and resulting price inflation hurt their party at the ballot box, and they are worried that history could repeat itself.
Many Republican lawmakers view tariffs as a tax hike on American consumers, and some note that the last two times Congress enacted tax hikes on the scale of Trump’s recent tariffs, the president’s party suffered a wipeout in the next election.
“In the national elections, you can go back to 1982 when I think it was about 26 congressional seats that were lost [by Republicans],” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who will be a top Democratic target in next year’s midterm election."
'Wipeout", Bloodbath"...get ready for it MAGA-fans...ROFL..
HopeSpringsEternal
Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers will drop VERY soon, many deals within next 90 days, meaning lower prices, greater market access and thus increased economic growth.
Re-industrialization tariffs different matter, but waivers and exemptions being given to companies like TSMC & Apple, contingent upon timely reshoring, otherwise liable for tariffs retroactively, $penalties and interest etc.
VP Vance at the tip of the spear regarding reshoring and re-industrialization and WHY DJT selected him as VP. Expect him to run with popular Marco Rubio the most successful Hispanic politician in US history in 28!
lincolnman
And the MAGA bad news just keeps cascading...
"President Donald Trump’s approval ratings on the economy and inflation have fallen after weeks of tariff policy twists and turmoil in the stock market, according to a new poll released Sunday.
The CBS News survey of 2,410 Americans found 44% approved of Trump’s handling of the economy and 40% approved of his handling of inflation, both down 4% from March 30. In all, 58% of respondents said they oppose new U.S. tariffs on imported goods."
No doubt our MAGA-friends here will try to spin all these upside-down numbers as "winning"...
Tokyo Guy
"Republican lawmakers say there’s a good chance that President Trump’s trade war will boomerang on Republicans politically in 2026, as rising prices and shrinking growth could offset other accomplishments by the GOP.
"Other" accomplishments?
I suppose for the GOP, things like "illegally sending people to an El Salvador gulag", "Leaking classified plans via a group chat", "Insulting other countries" and "Bending the knee to Russia" are actual accomplishments.
The question is, come the midterms, how well will the White House Whitewashing Machine have been able to erase these things from existence? MAGA won't care, but they're a lost cause. Democrats will remember, but will hopefully not be looking at another case of "party being split apart by its own ideology". Moderate republicans, if there are any left, may or may not choose to factor those things in when voting.
HopeSpringsEternal
US inflation is dropping, energy prices dropping and interest rates are lower today than 20 Jan.
Once this tariff and trade uncertainty passes in next few months as deals are signed and the one Big Beautiful Reconciliation Bill is passed in May, business certainty in taxes, regulations and Govt policy will Sky-Rocket!
bass4funk
I disagree
bass4funk
They also said this.
https://youtu.be/_niqzzejK5U?si=XC4tfLg4spmwxxRx
elephant200
Don't tell Donnie Trump, he is tasked with sabotaging his own country. When you guys implodes and want to get him for trial someday in future , he has flew in his private plane to Moscow and Mr.Putin will honoring him in Kremlin putting a medal :"Hero of Russian federation " on his chest!
bass4funk
Which lawmaker? The only way for it to boomerang on the GOP is if the Dems come up with a better plan going forward, so far, just rag tag old Socialists and Texas loudmouths, wanting to tax the job creators.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Trump undoing another one of his mistakes is not actual growth.
lincolnman
Remember, you're supposed to read the post before commenting...
“In the national elections, you can go back to 1982 when I think it was about 26 congressional seats that were lost [by Republicans],” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.),
TaiwanIsNotChina
How come people aren't investing in Gaza or the West Bank then?
bass4funk
Ahh, ok, What a relief, I thought someone serious was sounding the alarm
bass4funk
Wait, give it time.
lincolnman
Indeed, he's just another Repub idiot...
Like this guy...
"MAGA favorite Ted Cruz over the weekend spoke out about the devastating effects of Donald Trump’s disruptive economic policies, predicting a “bloodbath” in next year’s midterms if the current market collapse worsens. “If he leaves them in place and we just have constant tariffs, that is a massive tax increase on the American people,”
Oh my....
bass4funk
Ok, so more left loon nonsense
I'veSeenFootage
Who pays for tariffs, bass?
bass4funk
The question you should be asking is, why past Presidents allowed us to get into this mess.
I'veSeenFootage
Why aren't you answering?
What mess are you talking about? The mess that made America the richest country in the history of the world?
I'veSeenFootage
(IE: He doesn't know who pays for tariffs and yet still insists on discussing the subject)
wallace
Trump has warned that "nobody is getting off the hook for unfair trade balances", suggesting that further tariffs could be expected.
Trump's back-and-forth on tariffs last week caused major swings in global financial markets and raised fears about the impact on global trade
Trump's tariffs go back and forth like a child's swing in the park. Here today, gone tomorrow, back the next day.
bass4funk
Yup!
wallace
bass4funk
Trump's tariffs go back and forth like a child's swing in the park. Here today, gone tomorrow, back the next day.
Glad to see you agree.
Like Ian Dury said, "Hit me hit with your tariff stick!" Das ist gut! C'est fantastique!
TaiwanIsNotChina
There were a heck of a lot of Republican presidents that pushed free trade, from Reagan, to Sr. Bush, to Jr. Bush. I guess MAGA loons consider them Democrats now.
bass4funk
As well as Pelosi, Obama, Chucky did.
Democrat-lite to be exactly.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Funny, only one of those was president.
That's okay, MAGA is on the fast train to permanent disgrace so we'll be looking at a lot more Democrats in the future.
bass4funk
But in Congress
I doubt it.
Ah_so
@HopeSpringsEternal - while I don't agree with you, it is nice to read someone from the right who puts coherent arguments together. It looks like now that you're the only one on the topic who does.
Blacklabel
Must be all ok cause that US premarket is soaring, especially Nasdaq.