‘Worse Than the Worst-Case Scenario’: CNBC Host Hits the Panic Button as Trump Rolls Out Sweeping Tariffs

CNBC’s Jon Fortt painted a bleak picture of international trade after President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs on Wednesday.

Trump spoke in the Rose Garden for nearly an hour, during which time he announced massive tariffs on dozens of trading partners, including 34% on imports from China, 46% on Vietnamese-made goods, and 20% tariffs on imports from the European Union. Meanwhile, Trump left the existing tariffs on Canada and Mexico in place. Those countries that did not appear on the official list of tariffed countries will nonetheless face baseline tariffs of 10%. He also imposed a 25% tariff on all automobile imports.

The president billed the event as “Liberation Day” and said April 2 “will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.”

After the event concluded, the hosts of CNBC’s Closing Bell: Overtime weighed in on the tariffs, which are set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday. The reviews were not good.

“And the market reaction after hours, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Fortt said. “This, I think, fair to say, is worse than the worst-case scenario of the tariffs that many in the market expected the president to impose… [T]here’s some question of how the administration calculated the percentages that they’re responding to in each of these cases. Are they adding in value-added taxes? He talked about non-tariff barriers as well. So, I think while many were hoping that this would eliminate uncertainty, there’s going to be more uncertainty in the market and from those watching policy tomorrow, well, if countries push back on how these non-tariff barriers were calculated, will there be wiggle room here? Exactly when do these go into effect? How quickly are companies going to have to adjust their pricing? So many questions.”

Watch above via CNBC.