Trump announces ‘major’ new tariff on pharmaceuticals just hours before Liberation Day levies take effect

Donald Trump teased even more tariffs just hours before his ‘Liberation Day’ agenda is set to go into effect roiling global markets. 

Trump headlined the National Republican Congressional Committee’s President’s Dinner at the National Building Museum in Washington. 

After reiterating that he would be putting a 104 percent retaliatory tariff on China at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Trump said his administration would soon be tariffing pharmaceuticals too. 

‘We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals and once we do that they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market,’ Trump said. 

‘So we’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals and when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places because they have to – most of their product is sold here and they’re going to be opening up their plants all over our country,’ he added.

Trump’s reaffirmed commitment to tariffs comes after the Dow ended more than 300 points down. 

The president admitted Tuesday that the stock market dropping is not ideal but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,’ CNBC reported. 

Overall the tariff-related market drop amounted to more than 4,500 points. 

The stock market briefly rallied Tuesday when it appeared Trump could put a pause on his tariffs going into effect. 

The White House has since indicated that’s not going to happen. 

Ahead of the midnight deadline, American stock futures and Asian equity both dropped, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average dropped over three percent, while contracts connected to the S&P500 and Dow dropped between 1.3 and two percent.  

Trump vowed to bring pharmaceutical production back to the United States.  

Many generic drugs sold in the U.S. are made in China – and also India, which will be hit with a 26 percent reciprocal tariff starting Wednesday. A lot of brand-name drug manufacturing is done in Europe. 

Pharmaceuticals were one of the carve-outs excluded from the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, as well as rare earth minerals, gold and semiconductors. 

Tariffs on Chinese pharmaceuticals were to remain at 20 percent. 

Last Wednesday Trump announced that every country – even uninhabited islands – would be hit with a 10 percent tariff on imports, with ‘reciprocal’ tariffs doled out to countries the White House considered to be the worst offenders. 

Since then markets have cratered. 

On Tuesday, after a brief rally attributed to a tariff pause possibly being on the table, the Dow ended more than 300 points down. Overall the tariff-related market drop amounted to more than 4,500 points.  

And the president escalated his trade war with China – with a 104 percent tariff going into effect on Beijing at 12:01 a.m., after China refused to lift its retaliatory tariffs by Trump’s deadine of noon on Tuesday. 

Trump had initially pitched a 34 percent increase on China when he announced the new tariffs during last Wednesday’s Rose Garden ‘Liberation Day’ event, on top of the 20 percent tariffs on China he had rolled out earlier this year.  He then stuck Beijing with another 50 percent increase. 

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that ‘it was a mistake for China to retaliate.’ 

‘The president, when America is punched, he punches back harder,’ she said, but added that ‘if China reaches out to make a deal, he’ll be incredibly gracious, but he’s going to do what’s best for the American people.’

She answered that it would be ‘imprudent’ of her to share what conditions it would take for Trump to lower the 104 percent tariff. 

Leavitt confirmed, however, that the president was open to making deals after the tariffs go into effect. 

‘Moving forward the president will talk to any country that picks up the phone to call and I can tell you the phones have been ringing off the hook wanting to talk to this administration, this president and his trade team to try and strike a deal,’ Leavitt said. 

‘And it’s because the world knows that they need the United States of America, they need our markets, they need our consumer, the president has a lot of leverage on his side because he has the best economy and the best country in the world that he leads,’ she continued. ‘And he knows that.’

‘And it’s about dang time we have a president who uses that economic leverage to benefit American workers and that is what the president is trying to do,’ the press secretary added.  

Trump delivered his remarks Tuesday to the group that assists Republicans in winning seats in the House of Representatives. 

He want the GOP-controlled Congress to pass a bill that includes major tax cuts – as Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are expiring. 

‘We are one big, beautiful bill signing away from the greatest economy in the history of the world,’ Trump said.  ‘If we don’t do it it’s going to be a disaster.’

‘And you just better hope that people believe that it was the Democrats’ fault, because you know, they’re very good at saying it was our fault,’ he continued. 

‘It’ll be the biggest tax increase in history,’ Trump said. 

He also spent portions of the speech beating up on Democrats – including former President Joe Biden, again mocking him for falling asleep on the beach. 

Trump mocked, at length, the neck-size of Democratic California Sen. Adam Schiff. 

‘He’s got the smallest neck I’ve ever seen,’ Trump remarked, asking how it holds up Schiff’s head. ‘It’s a mystery.’  

The president also marveled at Democrats using Rep. Jasmine Crockett as a potent surrogate. 

‘Crockett’s gonna bring them back?’ Trump mused. ‘They are in serious trouble.’