Trump’s Day 1: Unexpected restraint on tariffs, conflicts; dialling down on immigration rhetoric

Even on the feeling of being inside the White House, the 78-year old was unusually restrained. “What a great feeling,” he said when asked how it felt to be back in the Oval Office. “One of the better feelings I’ve ever had.”

Here’s a short summary of the positions articulated by Trump on various issues on Day 1.

On cracking down on immigration

Launching straight into an impromptu, 50-minute press conference in the Oval Office after taking charge, Trump seemed to have toned down the rhetoric on immigration and China.

On a question on immigration, Trump said: “I’m fine with legal immigration… I like it. We need people, and I’m absolutely fine with it. We want to have it. We need it, because we’re going to have a lot of companies coming in to avoid tariffs. You know, if you don’t want tariffs, all you have to do is build your plants in the US. So we’re going to have a lot of workers coming in, but we have to have legal immigration.”

On imposing tariffs on China

On a question on imposing fresh tariffs on China, Trump said the tariffs he had put on that country in his first term (2017-21) could not be terminated by the Joe Biden administration “because it was too much money, and the budgets didn’t work, and other reasons too”.

Trump followed that up with a conciliatory statement that he’s going to have meetings and calls with President Xi Jingping. “I spoke to President Xi… I hope you know about it.”

On ending the Ukraine war

On his campaign promise of ending the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day in office, Trump quipped that it had only been half a day yet – but followed it up with a more practical statement that he would work to ensure the conflict ended fast.

He declared that had he been in power earlier, the war would not have started in the first place.

On the sale/ban on TikTok

On Monday evening, Trump signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law that requires a sale or ban of the platform.

Asked by a reporter why he had had a change of heart since trying to ban TikTok in 2020, Trump responded: “Because I got to use it.”

“And remember, Tiktok is largely about kids, young kids. If China is going to get information about young kids out of it, to be honest, I think we have bigger problems than that. But you know, when you take a look at telephones that are made in China and all the other things that are made in China, military equipment made in China, TikTok! I think TikTok is not their biggest problem…”

In August 2020, during his last term, Trump had invoked his emergency economic powers to issue an executive order that imposed broad sanctions against TikTok on national security grounds.

With this new executive order, Trump, the initiator of all of Tik Tok’s troubles in the US less than five years ago, is now effectively the saviour on the video sharing platform that has more than 160 million users in the US.

On the extent of Elon Musk’s role

To yet another pointed question on whether billionaire Elon Musk, a close ally, will have a role in implementing his new executive orders, Trump was quick to draw a line.

“(You) mentioned Elon. He is busy launching rockets with many satellites on board,” Trump said.

On the tariffs on BRICS – with a muddle

Even as he spoke informally with reporters while signing the pile of executive orders, the one issue on which Trump was assertive was regarding his threat of a punitive tax on the BRICS countries. The context, though, was somewhat muddled.

One of the journalists present at the interaction had asked Trump about the low defence spending of NATO countries like France and Spain, and the President singled out Spain, but ended up bracketing the European nation with the BRICS grouping – where a couple of members had deliberated on having an alternative global currency to the US dollar.

“Are they a BRICS country? Well, they are a BRICS country. Spain. Do you know what a BRICS country is? You’ll find out. But if the BRICS countries want to do that, okay! But we are going to put at least a 100 per cent tariff on the business they do with the United States. Do you know what BRICS is? You know what I’m saying. So this is not even a threat…”

The journalist asked again whether Spain risked 100 per cent tariffs. And Trump insisted: “As a BRICS country, yes. They will have a 100 per cent tariff if they even continue to do what they thought. And therefore they will give it up immediately, so China will give up on it.”