Liberation Day looms and nobody except Donald Trump has a clue what's going to happen
Washington D.C.: The mood inside the White House is tense as President Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed 'Liberation Day' — April 2 — looms. According to sources, behind closed doors, top officials are scrambling to decipher the president’s latest trade agenda, but uncertainty is everywhere.
"No one knows what the f*** is going on," admitted a White House ally close to Trump’s inner circle, speaking anonymously.
Trump had promised sweeping new tariffs, potentially affecting over $1 trillion in trade. Yet, with days left, even basic details — which countries, which goods, at what rates — remain in flux.
Privately, officials like Vice President JD Vance, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have pushed for a measured approach. "We may have sectoral tariffs on April 2, and we may not," one official told Politico.
But Trump has veered between targeted levies and blanket penalties. Earlier in the week, he blindsided his team with a sudden 25% auto tariff, forcing a frantic policy scramble. "If companies were smart, they’d have anticipated this," one official shrugged.
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Meanwhile, a power struggle rages. On one side: Vance and Bessent, urging restraint. On the other: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade hawk Peter Navarro, stoking Trump’s confrontational instincts. Navarro insisted the administration was "one band, one sound", but insiders called Lutnick a "f***ing nightmare" for enabling Trump’s whims.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans seem helpless. "This is Trump, not anyone else," said Sen. Josh Hawley. Sen. John Kennedy warned of midterm disaster: "If this triggers a recession, it turns a four-year term into two."
Yet Trump remains defiant. "I may give a lot of countries breaks," he teased, after earlier vowing to hit "every country".