The White House whirlwind that led to Trump’s all-out tariff strategy

WASHINGTON—In the final run-up to President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, aides were left with a difficult task.

They were struggling to square the president’s seemingly contradictory goals for sweeping new duties. He wanted them to raise significant revenue for the government, as well as provide a durable signal for companies to invest in the U.S., according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Those goals would align with a permanent, across-the-board tariff. A universal approach would also help prevent companies from avoiding tariffs by shifting production to other countries—a key issue for Trump’s economic team.

But the president also liked the idea of reciprocity, the people said—or charging nations “what they charge us,” as Trump has put it publicly. That pointed to individualized tariff rates for nations that could be calibrated according to their tariffs and other economic policies.

A senior administration official described a “ping pong match” between universal tariffs or the reciprocal approach.

On one hand, Trump viewed the idea for a universal tariff as simple and easy to explain, this person said. On the other hand, advisers such as National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick argued the American public would understand the tit-for-tat principle underlying a reciprocal approach.

In a Monday afternoon meeting with his trade advisers, Trump asked for numbers on every country, a prelude to the chart of tariff rates he displayed in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, the senior administration official said. The figures didn’t necessarily match what foreign countries charge against imports from the U.S., The Wall Street Journal has reported.

In the end, they decided to implement both tariff options. On Tuesday afternoon in an Oval Office meeting, Trump wanted to go with the reciprocal approach, the person said, though the plan would also include a universal, 10% tariff for any nation not targeted with higher, reciprocal tariffs. That decision came late in the monthlong lead-up to Trump’s self-imposed April 2 deadline, with the U.S. Trade Representative’s office as late as Tuesday afternoon still working on alternative, less aggressive plans.

The result is an approach that has shocked the stock market and ignited a scramble for companies and foreign governments ahead of April 9, when the higher, reciprocal tariffs will take effect. White House economic officials have largely taken the chaos in stride, the senior administration official said, adding that despite the magnitude of the announcement, “we are only down 3%,” referring to the stock market.

Trump—who has called himself “a tariff man” and said publicly that tariffs are “the most beautiful word, to me, in the dictionary” after God, religion and maybe love—imposed a plan similar to one he promised on the campaign trail. He did so almost entirely based on his own vision for the U.S. economy, upending decades of U.S. trade policy without keeping some of his advisers in the loop and frustrating some Republicans who have backed his America First message.

In the aftermath of the tariff decision, Trump’s aides took to TV to defend the president’s action, but not always satisfactorily from the White House’s perspective, people familiar with the matter said. On Thursday morning, there were discussions to make sure everyone was beating from the same drum on TV, one of the people said. On Thursday, officials focused on consolidating his message that the tariffs are here to stay, even as aides close to him said some negotiations with other countries are likely.

“I don’t think there’s any chance…that President Trump’s going to back off his tariffs,” Lutnick said Thursday on CNN. “The world should stop exploiting the United States of America.” The administration has said the baseline 10% tariffs aren’t up for negotiation, though higher duties could come down.

“He’ll be in a negotiation with every country,” said Steve Bannon, a former senior White House strategist who remains close with Trump and his aides. “Every day will be like Christmas. At the end of the day, what really excites him is talking about a deal with Canada, having Witkoff update him on Russia—the deals.” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, has been leading negotiations on the Middle East and Ukraine.

Many people urged Trump to take a more modest path. Earlier on Tuesday, and in the days leading up to Trump’s Wednesday tariff announcement, the White House fielded calls from industry and labor officials cautioning not to take a maximalist approach. GOP lawmakers and strategists expressed similar concerns about rising prices associated with tariffs.

Even among labor leaders and businesses supportive of tariffs, the warning to Trump was to not overplay his hand. If the White House tanks the global economy using tariffs, some allies cautioned, the policy tool could be taboo for years to come.

Though the overall tariff policy was aggressive, the White House appeared to have heeded those cautions, at least in part. The universal tariff ended up at 10%, not 20% as was discussed at one point. And any new tariffs won’t be stacked on top of existing industry-specific tariffs such as foreign-made automobiles and steel. Existing carve-outs for goods compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement would persist, leaving those products duty-free.

Trump’s senior staff grew exasperated with the conversations at times, according to people familiar with the matter. There were a lot of people trying to talk Trump out of tariffs despite his having believed in them for decades, the people said.

The announcement was a surprise to many. Prominent business executives weren’t invited to the Rose Garden, nor were they given information before the event about what was to come, according to people involved in the White House tariff discussions. One of the few chief executives invited to the event, Zekelman Industries CEO Barry Zekelman, said before boarding a flight to Washington that he still didn’t know the details of the announcement he planned to attend.

Inside the White House, many aides were ready to finally move on from the weeks of tariff uncertainty. One senior administration official hoped the White House could just “deal with the bloodbath” on Thursday morning and move on. This person said most White House officials, perhaps except for Trump, are tired of talking about tariffs. The goal is to pivot the economic messaging out of the White House to tax cuts, this person said, and begin more in-depth discussions on a congressional package by the weekend.

After Trump’s announcement, the atmosphere among the trade leaders in Washington was downcast. At a pre-scheduled dinner hosted by the National Foreign Trade Council on Wednesday, pro-trade speakers from both parties railed against the tariffs, with Rep. Ted Lieu (D., Calif.) calling them crazy, to the delight of the crowd.

“Anyone who suggests a tariff is not a tax needs to go back to school,” former U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, who served under President George W. Bush, said on the stage.

Meanwhile, across town, a handful of Republican senators broke with Trump on his trade policy, joining with Democrats to pass a resolution aiming to undo the president’s 25% tariff on Canadian imports. The next morning another bipartisan moment of pushback to Trump: Sens. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) introduced a bill that would make tariffs temporary, unless they are approved by Congress.

“For too long, Congress has delegated its clear authority to regulate interstate and foreign commerce to the executive branch,” said Grassley, who has a family farm at home in Iowa.

The White House was flooded with concerned calls since the announcement, a Trump adviser said. But despite the stock-market selloff, some advisers feared it would have been even worse.

Write to Gavin Bade at gavin.bade@wsj.com, Josh Dawsey at Joshua.Dawsey@WSJ.com and Meridith McGraw at Meridith.McGraw@WSJ.com