21 times Trump changed his mind about tariffs since February 7, a curated list of events

For US President Donald Trump, the imposition of trade tariffs on countries the United States was in business with, was one of the major things on the Presidential agenda. This was even before he became President. However, after the Presidential inauguration and the subsequent ascension to office, things began taking some "topsy-turvy" turns, as he announced repeated policy changes related to tariff imposition.

The latest of the lot was the raising of steel tariffs from 25% to a whopping 50%. Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed on Sunday that “tariffs are not going away” after a federal appeals court last week restored many of the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs that had hit a roadblock.

Donald Trump's tariff whims since February 7

The "mind-changing" fiasco began since February 7, and has been continuing for the last couple of months at a stretch. On this day, he made his first comments about imposing sweeping tariffs on foreign imports, which came after already announcing separate tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico.

On February 13, Trump signed a memorandum that directed his administration to mend any “non-reciprocal trade arrangements” with other countries. This, according to the memo, had to be done by determining the equivalent of a reciprocal tariff "with respect to each foreign trading partner", according to Forbes.

Then came March 26, when the Trump administration announced 25% tariffs on imported cars to be imposed from April 3. This also included the tariff announcement on autoparts, extended to May 3.

The very next day, Trump announced that the imposition of the tariffs on automobiles would remain "permanent" throughout his term. Later, on April 29, Trump signed an executive order exempting companies paying the 25% tariff on imported cars and automobile parts from paying any other tariffs. 

This marked one of the major "flip-flops" around Trump tariffs. Here's a look at some of the other ones:

• The Trump administration rolled out a major tariff policy on Liberation Day, but appeared to calculate the tariffs by just dividing a country’s trade surplus with the U.S. based on its export value, rather than the more sophisticated formula the administration claimed initially.
• Even though White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had claimed on March 31 that there would be no exemptions to Trump’s impending tariffs on foreign goods, the Liberation Day executive order imposing the tariffs exempted “copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and other energy products." In this executive order, Trump also backtracked on his previous commitment for the US to charge reciprocal tariffs matching the ones other countries impose on US goods.
• One of his biggest "flip-flops" happened on April 9, when the stock market crashed on the basis of tariffs taking effect. However, even after claiming that "everything is going to work out well", and urging US investors to keep buying stocks, he ended up pausing the imposed tariffs on most countries for 90 days.
• Then came another major one on May 16, when Trump suggested he would reimpose "new tariff rates" without completing trade deals with other countries.

On May 30, the Trump upped the rates of steel tariffs from 25% to 50%, during an event in Pennsylvania. It has been claimed that the new rate would go into effect on June 4, marking a close on the ‘flip-flops’ for the month of May.