National political correspondent Maggie Haberman is “not sure” if President Trump has an “actual, specific outcome” planned for the implementation of his tariffs on other countries.
Haberman, a CNN contributor, joined Anderson Cooper on Tuesday after Trump met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as the countries grapple with increased tensions due to Trump’s tariffs.
“Is it clear to you what kind of outcome he’s looking for?” Cooper asked.
“No,” Haberman replied. “And I’m not sure that it’s clear to him what kind of actual, specific outcome he’s looking for, other than one where the U.S. can say we’re on top and somebody else is not.”
Haberman’s remarks come after Trump shared that the United States doesn’t “really want cars from Canada” and he put a 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods.
“At a certain point, it won’t make economic sense for Canada to build those cars,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We really don’t want Canadian steel, and we don’t want Canadian aluminum and various other things, because we wanna be able to do it [ourselves].”
Haberman noted that no matter what the outcome of tariff negotiations is with Canada, most of the United States’s other trading partners will see it as “some kind of a framework of a deal.”
“And Trump will say, ‘We won. This is what I wanted,’” Haberman said. “It won’t be an actual trade deal.
“Those take months and sometimes years to hammer out,” she continued. “He will take some kind of off-ramps, but I don’t think he knows exactly what he wants to see, other than a headline that says success.”
Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcement shocked global markets. The president then implemented a 90-day pause for reciprocal tariffs on every country beside China, with the hope that countries will come to the negotiating table.
The administration has expressed confidence that deals will be made and allies like India, South Korea, Japan and the European Union are negotiating with the U.S.
Trump’s meeting with Carney comes just after the Canadian election. Trump’s tariff plan and comments about acquiring Canada largely fueled Carney’s win, experts have said.
Their meeting was shadowed by Trump’s tariffs against Canada. The president downplayed the idea that Canada could escape tariffs already in place, but indicated negotiations would not result in traditional trade deals.
