US President Donald Trump is expected to announce new tariffs on Wednesday, what he's calling "Liberation Day." Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman joins Market Domination with Josh Lipton and Barron's associate editor Al Root to discuss how the Trump administration will deliver bailouts to farmers impacted by retaliatory tariffs on a case-by-case basis.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here.
First come the tariffs and now bailouts from President Trump are starting to materialize for more. We're going to welcome in here Yahoo Finances senior columnist, Rick Newman. Rick,
What's up, Josh?
So we know from the Trump trade war one that took place in 2018 and 2019, uh, the trade, our trade partners have already begun to retaliate against, uh, American exports and we're going to get more retaliation, and that's going to focus heavily on agricultural products. So, uh, the playbook from, uh, 2018 and 2019 during Trump's first term was, uh, bailouts for farmers to compensate for the, all the business they lost, uh, in lost sales to countries such as China, Canada, and Mexico. Back in 2018 and 2019, uh, aid to farmers amounted to $23 billion, uh, and Trump's agricultural, agricultural secretary is now basically saying, yes, we're ready to do that again. So, farmers don't want bailouts, they, I mean, over and over they will say, look, we want open markets, not bailouts, but they're going to get hit by retaliatory measures with regard to Trump's tariffs and bailouts are coming all over again.
What about, uh, I, Rick, this is Elroy. Uh, you know, rolling bailouts to some of the larger exporters, a Boeing, a Deere, a Caterpillar? I mean, do you think that, you know, farmers in the heartland, that's an easy sell, you know, as other companies start to see real impacts, do you think there's a chance of any relief or any form of direct support?
Yeah, there there is, there certainly is a form of relief, but this is two different buckets. So the reason Trump can, um, basically offer farmers cash is because he can tap, uh, what's basically a lending arm at the Agriculture Department and that does not require, uh, congressional approval. Not so easy for industrial tariffs, as there's not a similar lending arm at the Commerce Department, let's say. But the way the Trump is going to, um, offer, uh, reprieve on a case-by-case basis is through exemptions. Um, we saw this the first time around also. So Trump, um, there there were more than 100,000 exemption requests in 2018 and 2019. So a company goes to the Commerce Department and says, uh, this particular tariff is killing us. Can we get a reprieve? Um, and then the, the trade partner can do something similar on their end. I mean, this is all the behind-the-scenes activities that take place. My guess is that one of the reasons Trump says he loves tariffs so much is because he gets to decide the winners and losers. I mean, literally, on a product-by-product basis, or even a company-by-company basis. So any companies that are going to get a break from Trump, they're not going to get a bailout check from the Agriculture Department, but they're going to get favorable treatment from the, uh, from other parts of the Trump administration when they ask for tariff exemptions.
Great point.
Rick, always great to see you. Thank you.
Bye, guys.
