Day: April 3, 2025

President Trump triumphantly held up a poster board in the Rose Garden on Wednesday showing the reciprocal tariffs he plans to impose on nearly every country in the world.

But just how the White House came up with the formula to determine what percentage of tariffs to impose and where has left foreign leaders, financial analysts and consumers scratching their heads. 

Administration officials insist that trade deficits took a central role in determining the rates. In rolling out the tariffs, officials said the rate for each country would also be calculated by both tariffs imposed on U.S. goods and nontrade barriers like currency manipulation, intellectual property theft like knock-offs and other factors that made it more difficult to sell into that country.

A summary by the U.S. trade representative’s (USTR) office purports to show how it reached the final number imposed on other countries, but it also relies heavily on sheer trade deficits between the U.S. and other countries when all is said and done.

“Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between the U.S. and each of our trading partners,” the USTR summary stated. “This calculation assumes that persistent trade deficits are due to a combination of tariff and non-tariff factors that prevent trade from balancing. Tariffs work through direct reductions of imports.”

The disconnect between how the rates were reached and whether or not Trump was using the tariffs as a negotiating tool only furthered confusion.

When it comes to tariffs imposed on China, which saw the highest rate of retaliation, Trump’s board in the Rose Garden showed its tariffs against the U.S. at 67 percent, resulting in the reciprocal tariff of 34 percent. But that rate is compounded by an existing 20 percent tariff, making the total 54 percent on goods.

Chinese tariffs against U.S. imports were at 22.6 percent following retaliatory tariffs imposed in recent weeks, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Dividing the United States’s 2024 trade deficit with China by the amount imported from there results in the 67 percent figure displayed on the chart.

Similarly, dividing the United States’s $62.6 billion trade deficit with Japan in 2024 by the $135.8 billion of Japanese goods the U.S. imported results in the roughly 46 percent tariff the White House said Japan was charging. That was used to get the 24 percent tariff the Trump administration imposed on Japan.

Dividing the $41.5 billion U.S. trade deficit with Thailand by the $57.7 billion imported from Thailand results in the 72 percent tariff the White House said Thailand was charging.

The Wall Street Journal reported the same formula appears to apply for at least 71 of the 184 countries that were hit with reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday.

The trade deficit-based math was first highlighted by James Surowiecki, a contributing writer for The Atlantic.

White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai responded to Surowiecki on the social platform X, pushing back on his assertion that the formula was as simple as using trade deficits.

“No we literally calculated tariff and non tariff barriers,” wrote Desai, who linked to the USTR report laying out its determinations.

Desai’s post on X sharing the USTR formula was amended with a community note from the social media platform that noted the purported formula was “essentially equivalent” to the trade deficit-based formula, “and includes no terms for the tariff rate charged by the exporting country.”

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for additional comment on the formula.

The White House’s emphasis on trade deficits reflects Trump’s long-standing frustration with how much more money the U.S. spends on foreign goods than they spend on American products.

Trump has long viewed the fairness of trade relationships through the size of the U.S. trade deficit in goods with that nation. He has frequently blasted political leaders in both parties for signing trade deals that led to an influx of cheap goods from abroad and the decline of U.S. factories.

While most trade experts say Trump has legitimate grievances about the legacy of free-trade deals, they say the trade deficits in goods the U.S. runs with most nations simply reflects American purchasing power and the high U.S. demand for goods not easily produced domestically.

As administration officials took to the airwaves on Wednesday morning to defend Trump’s tariffs, they largely avoided specifics on how the amounts were calculated.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the USTR’s office worked with the Council of Economic Advisers to determine the rates based on decades of analysis of “tools that other economies use to hurt America.”

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on CNBC was also pressed on how the White House came up with its formula, to which he pivoted away from the metrics used to determine the percentages.

“I wouldn’t focus on the way they’ve calculated it. I would focus on — the numbers are quite high,” Mnuchin said. “Particularly when you add up the existing tariffs on China and others, and places like Vietnam. And I think that hopefully this will be a negotiation of ‘let’s get to the table. Let’s negotiate fair deals.'”

Nineteen Democratic attorneys general sued Thursday over President Trump’s executive order that aims to strengthen proof of citizenship requirements in voting and prevent states from tabulating mail-in ballots received after Election Day. 

The new lawsuit adds to three existing cases filed by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and separate coalitions of private groups, who accuse Trump of going beyond his authority and violating the separation of powers.

“It bears emphasizing: the President has no power to do any of this,” the states’ complaint reads. “Neither the Constitution nor Congress has authorized the President to impose documentary proof of citizenship requirements or to modify State mail-ballot procedures.”

Trump’s order, signed March 25, directs the attorney general to target states that count absentee or mail-in ballots that are received after Election Day, a practice that conservatives have increasingly targeted in recent years. Court battles over whether it is legal commenced long before Trump’s inauguration. 

The president also directed that the federal mail voter registration form and the postcard application used by voters overseas require citizenship proof of citizenship. 

“If instead Plaintiff States choose not to comply with the President’s blatantly unconstitutional attempt to legislate-by-fiat, they will suffer severe cuts in federal funding that will throw the national electoral system into disarray. The Framers carefully crafted a federal compact that protects the States from this Hobson’s choice,” the lawsuit states. 

The White House has previously pushed back on the legal challenges, saying Trump’s order is “an effort to protect the integrity of American elections” and that “Democrats continue to show their disdain for the Constitution.” 

Led by California and Nevada, the states suing are Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. 

The new case adds to three separate challenges filed earlier this week that include plaintiffs like the DNC, the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens. 

Columbia University’s leading anti-Semitic group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), showcased its latest act of anarchy Thursday afternoon: a campus bathroom defaced with red paint and inverted Hamas triangles.

“A group of anonymous actionists welcomed @Columbia’s new AIPAC-backed university dictator Claire Shipman with a redecoration of Columbia’s bathrooms during her campus visit,” CUAD wrote in an X post accompanying four photos of the graffiti.

SUBMISSION: A group of anonymous actionists welcomed @Columbia’s new AIPAC-backed university dictator Claire Shipman with a redecoration of Columbia’s bathrooms during her campus visit.

Who is ​​​​​Columbia’s latest President – the third in under two years? pic.twitter.com/1Da3ImZFmE

— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) April 3, 2025

The photos show two bathroom stalls vandalized with red paint on the walls reading “WELCOME SHITMAN”—referring to Shipman, Columbia’s new acting president—punctuated by upside-down triangles, a symbol Hamas uses to denote Israeli targets. The same symbol accompanied other phrases, including “FUCK the TRUSTEE COUP” and “free PALESTINE.” “WELCOME SHITMAN” was also scrawled across a toilet seat.

Flyers were posted in the stalls featuring a doctored image of Shipman crawling out of a toilet with a caption reading, “Shitman! Shitman! We know you. You arrest your students too!” The flyers bore the logo of Columbia’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter, another anti-Israel student group, suggesting it was also involved in the vandalism.

Columbia released a statement saying it notified law enforcement and was investigating to identify the perpetrators.

“On Thursday, restroom facilities at Lerner Hall, Columbia University’s Student Center, were vandalized with graffiti that included disturbing, personal attacks,” the statement read. “Law enforcement was notified, the vandalism was removed swiftly, and an investigation is underway to identify those involved. Defacing property with harassing, threatening, or intimidating language is unacceptable and will not be tolerated at Columbia.”

The incident comes as Columbia struggles to rein in campus anti-Semitism, a crisis that has destabilized its leadership and triggered a $430 million loss in federal funding. Shipman, a former ABC and CNN journalist, took on the new role on Friday following interim President Katrina Armstrong’s abrupt resignation. Days earlier, Armstrong publicly promised to enact policy reforms intended to jumpstart negotiations with the Trump administration to restore the funding, then privately downplayed or denied that change was underway. Shipman took on her new role just two weeks after finalizing her divorce from former Obama press secretary Jay Carney.

“Shipman’s ties to AIPAC and Zionist violence run deep. In 2018, she led interviews at the AIPAC Policy Conference, sharing laughs with guests including MARCO RUBIO. Rubio is directly responsible for the targeting and abduction of Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil by ICE,” CUAD wrote on X.

Khalil, a former Columbia graduate student and foreign national, was detained by ICE in March after Rubio revoked his visa and green card over his pro-Hamas organizing on campus.

“But it must be noted, regardless of personal involvement, every Trustee and every Administrator is complicit in Mahmoud’s abduction. It’s their role in the genocide of the Palestinian people that has paved the way for this brutal repression today,” CUAD continued. “After months of organized pressure and protest, Columbia has been forced to reveal its entire institution as built, bought, and sold by the Zionist death machine. The Uni can no longer hide its fascist fangs, so it’s resorted to a full-force crackdown on the mvmnt [sic] for Palestine.”

This isn’t the first time CUAD targeted Columbia bathrooms. In January, the group used cement to clog the School of International and Public Affairs’s toilets. Just months prior, Columbia student radicals had gathered in a recognized student organization for a crash course in anarchy. Training materials included a manual crafted for “aspiring revolutionaries,” detailing the very tactics seen on campus.

Wednesday afternoon, meanwhile, several Columbia student activists chained themselves to a school gate, chanting, “globalize the intifada.” After a few hours, the school’s Public Safety department removed the chains and escorted the activists through the gate, where they continued their protest. Later in the evening, Public Safety removed a second group that had chained themselves to a nearby fence.

Last week, Grant Miner, a Columbia graduate student who was expelled earlier this month for overtaking Hamilton Hall, gave a speech on campus, telling anti-Israel protesters they had to “fight back.”

Miner, the president of Columbia’s radical graduate student union, Student Workers of Columbia, led a chant before giving the speech on the steps of Low Memorial Library, an administrative building. The union organized the protest, demanding “No research cuts. No ICE. No censorship. No layoffs.”

Four days earlier, the union coordinated another demonstration to protest the Ivy League school’s policy reforms, which include new restrictions on mask-wearing during protests. Members of the union handed out masks to protesters while Columbia’s Palestine Solidarity Coalition—a CUAD splinter group—called on students to “wear a mask on Monday to protest mask bans and the fascist trustees.”

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