Trump’s trade war is a sledgehammer to America’s tech dominance
The president’s instincts on rebalancing the trade deficit with China aren’t wrong, but his methods are constraining the talents that have underwritten the US AI boom.
Donald Trump has taken his coterie of tech billionaire bros for a rollercoaster ride with his tariff war.
The US president’s decision to dramatically hike tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 per cent last week was followed by a U-turn on Friday night to exclude smartphones, computer chips, hard drives, memory chips and other selected electronics from these levies. Two days later, in a confusing turn of events, Trump claimed on social media that “NOBODY is ‘getting off the hook’” and that electronics would still be subject to the 20 per cent tariffs. These actions have undermined the American tech sector’s relative stability, particularly in consumer electronics and high-tech industries.
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