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President Donald Trump’s economic advisers are becoming a team of rivals when it comes to advancing his market-breaking tariffs.
Ask Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett about negotiating on tariffs, for example — and you’ll hear four different answers.
After Lutnick insisted on CNN that Trump is “not going to back off,” Navarro argued in the Financial Times that “this is not a negotiation.” Shortly after that, Bessent announced on X that he would “open negotiations” with Japan and Hassett told Fox News that advisers would “present a plan for Trump” on negotiating tariffs.
The mixed messages point to fundamental disagreements within the administration about how to address trade deficits, according to more than a dozen lawmakers, lobbyists and analysts interviewed for this story. Trump’s advisers sound united behind the spirit of his trade agenda but far less aligned on its execution — differences driven by both personality and ideology.
“It’s something that we’ve never had a discussion about before, in terms of: ‘Here’s a policy, let’s theorize about it — and then let’s try it and see what works.’ And that’s where we are. We’re at the try-it phase,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Semafor.
The results of such a unique experiment in economic policymaking are unsettling investors and sparking quiet frustration among congressional Republicans who now have to defend the tariffs to voters and businesses. While some lawmakers and CEOs may look for advice from one economic adviser over another, the internal discord indicates that Trump is the only reliable narrator of his next moves on tariffs.
Ed Mills, a Washington policy analyst at Raymond James, described the dynamic within the administration as a tug-of-war between “team tariff,” which includes Lutnick, Navarro, and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and “team econ,” a label for the more market-sensitive advisers like Bessent and Hassett.
“It’s exceptionally clear that team tariff is winning right now,” Mills said.
Standing on the outside of that dynamic, albeit with considerable influence, is Elon Musk. The billionaire Trump ally has made clear he disagrees with the tariffs and labeled Navarro “a moron” who is “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
It’s enough to drive Republican lawmakers to distraction, sometimes in public. Republican senators pressed Greer at a Thursday hearing about who, specifically, was playing point on tariffs for the administration.
“Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., asked Greer on Tuesday, questioning what he described as a potentially overbroad approach to the tariffs. “I wish you well, but I am skeptical,” Tillis said later, before tempering his vivid rhetoric on the Senate floor.
“Trying to get everyone on the same effing page would be great,” one House Republican, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the tariff rollout, told Semafor. “I’m good picking a lane — but pick an effing lane.”
The White House sees advisers’ dueling opinions as part of a reasonable process, as one official said. This official added that it’s not problematic or viewed as inconsistent for people within the administration to emphasize different things.
Or as Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran put it to reporters on Monday: “There are conflicting narratives because everyone’s got an opinion.”
Know More
As he took office for a second term, the president made a point to surround himself with officials who are loyal to his agenda — and trade is no exception.
But the lead up to last week’s tariff rollout made it difficult for Trump’s advisers to stay united. That’s because the White House was weighing a choice between universal tariffs touted by Navarro or reciprocal tariffs backed by Hassett — and Trump moved forward with both, despite the fact that the two types of tariff are geared toward different goals.
“That’s why Navarro with the administration does not want reciprocal tariffs, because the point is not free trade,” Tim Chapman, president of former Vice President Mike Pence’s advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, told Semafor. “The point is to choose to erect around the entire nation a tariff hedge that keeps jobs in the United States, no matter what the jobs are.”
Navarro’s pursuit of universal tariffs as a means to bring manufacturing back to the US is a bet that requires permanency, which is one reason why he is seen as the loudest voice against negotiating.
One lobbyist who wants an administration official to brief clients on the tariffs was told it would be hard to arrange: “No one but Peter and Howard wants to defend this sh*t,” the lobbyist told Semafor.
Bessent, meanwhile, may be successfully nudging the White House toward seeking concessions in exchange for changes to the new tariffs.
In the face of this week’s market meltdown, Bessent said Tuesday that some 70 countries have approached Trump to negotiate. One of them is Japan; Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba implored Trump on a Monday call to reverse course and said he would send a team of negotiators to the US.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are largely lining up behind Bessent, who appeared on the Hill for a Tuesday briefing with manufacturers hosted by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. The Treasury chief is focused on minimizing the damage to Wall Street, but he’s handed lawmakers a framing they see as helpful to voters.
“He has characterized this in terms of, ‘Yes, there will be turbulence on Wall Street, but Wall Street investors tend to be the wealthiest people in the nation, so they can absorb some turbulence,’” Lummis said. “Whereas, if the tariff strategy is successful, it will benefit the least wealthy people in this country.”
Bessent told manufacturers on Tuesday to lean on Trump’s tax-cut plans when coping with confusion about tariffs, Emmer explained after the briefing.
The Treasury secretary subsequently told reporters that the tariffs are “negotiable, but not a negotiating tactic.”
The View From Wall Street
Warnings from Wall Street over Trump’s tariffs are getting louder as investors struggle to predict the administration’s next steps. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said this week that the tariffs would contribute to inflation and slow economic growth.
And during the hearing with Greer, an exasperated Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., quoted from a conversation with an unnamed Wall Street executive who described the markets as having “a good day in hospice.” Stocks had ticked up Tuesday amid talk of negotiations.
But it wasn’t long before they sank again. Markets closed on another downswing after Greer told lawmakers that Trump “does not intend to have exclusions” and White House forged ahead with more tariffs on China.
“I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they’re playing with a pair of twos,” Bessent told CNBC.
Room for Disagreement
Advocates for onshoring manufacturing warn that negotiating down trade barriers risks taking the pressure off employers to relocate. They also see Trump’s advisers as united in an ultimate desire to use tariffs to bring back jobs to the US.
Hassett is “just not a tariff guy,” and Lutnick is “more ideologically attached to Trump than any piece of the agenda, per se,” said Nick Iacovella, who represents manufacturers as executive vice president of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. “I don’t think Bessent necessarily loves tariffs; I don’t think he hates them either. I do think he recognizes they have to be a tool.”
“But they all know that there has to be some level of permanency here, at least at a certain level, to accomplish what the President wants to,” Iacovella added.
Notable
- One administration official described the White House’s internal debate over universal or reciprocal tariffs as a “ping pong match” to the Wall Street Journal.
- Another person told the Washington Post that confusion over which administration official was leading the process made it “challenging” for industry groups to weigh in ahead of Wednesday’s announcement.
- POLITICO reported that Bessent flew to Florida over the weekend to urge Trump to focus messaging on negotiating the tariffs or else risk “the markets will keep melting.”