Ultimately, however, they treated Trump as the final decider of the merits of each policy.
In the room with Trump as he deliberated the tariff plan was a group of top White House advisers on economic issues: Navarro, Trump’s senior trade counselor; Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary; Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary; Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative; Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff for policy; Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council; and Vice President JD Vance. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was also in meetings. Hassett was not present for the final meeting Wednesday.
Navarro, consistent with his longtime position on tariffs, was the loudest champion of taking aggressive measures. Miller and Vance in particular, said a person with knowledge of the discussions, continually expressed deference to Trump’s preferences — reiterating that they were in favor of whatever the president wanted to do. Bessent, a hedge fund manager who some on Wall Street had hoped would serve as a potential ally in restraining the president’s tariffs, had made clear even before he was nominated that he would support Trump’s trade agenda, the Washington Post and other outlets have previously reported.
“In their recruiting process, they made sure it would only be people who were totally Trumpers, because in the first administration, there was a lot of trouble with people quitting, writing bad books, things like that,” said Wilbur Ross, who served as commerce secretary during Trump’s first term. “The people now have been confirmed as true Trumpers.”
Trump seems to believe that a more loyal White House team is ultimately a more effective one. But as the now-unrestrained president’s ideas on trade wreak havoc on the global economy, even some of his allies have expressed deepening confusion and alarm. Two days after the momentous rollout, financial markets continued to reel.
For a month preceding what the White House branded “Liberation Day,” Trump and the tariff working group had been briefed a couple of times a week about the matter, though preliminary discussions about the viability of different options began during the transition.
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