CNBC Host Hammers Trump Over Tariff Plan ‘Made Up’ on the Fly: ‘There Are Still Trillions Lost’

President Donald Trump partially relented on his aggressive tariff scheme on Wednesday by lowering tariffs on imports from dozens of countries to 10%. Last week, the president announced sweeping tariffs on virtually all imports, starting with a baseline figure of 10%. He singled out 75 countries for higher figures, which he has now rolled back to the baseline number for 90 days, though Chinese imports are currently being tariffed at an eye-popping 125% tariff. Additionally, imports from Canada and Mexico have been slapped with a 25% tariff.

For its part, China has responded with an 84% tariff on U.S. goods.

Trump took a victory lap outside the White House as the Dow surged nearly 8%, even though the remaining tariffs still make for a more restrictive trading environment than the U.S. had just a week ago. Afterward, CNBC’s Steve Liesman was unimpressed by the developments.

“I mean, look, you can say this is a relief, but there’s another 90 days of uncertainty to come, which is worth it and you can also try to spin this as a victory,” he said. “Or you could see this as a failure of policy and leadership on the part of the White House.”

Liesman went on to say that the day before Trump announced the tariffs last week, the president had not revealed anything about the plan.

“And the reason I asked, is it because they don’t know? Or they’re not saying?” he continued. “And what we found out since is they didn’t know. The plan was made up that day… They didn’t run it by Wall Street. They didn’t run it by business leaders and CEOs. And now, you could argue – after withering punishment from markets, from bond markets, trillions lost across the globe – the president, he didn’t just flinch, but he ducked when it came to what was coming his way here.”

He concluded, “I will point out, there are still trillions lost from that day… There’s still quite a bit that’s been lost here in terms of where we were just on April 3rd. We’re still way down. These 10% tariffs – the market doesn’t like that either we didn’t get that back yet.”

Trump justified his exorbitant tariffs by falsely claiming other countries were acting similarly toward the U.S.

Watch above via CNBC.