President Donald Trump declared Wednesday will serve as the nation’s “Liberation Day,” as he is anticipated to enact trade policies emphasizing his “America First” mission, which his administration says will help end the U.S.’ reliance on goods made overseas.
Trump is expected to roll out his reciprocal tariff plans Wednesday, which will levy additional taxes on nations that export goods to the U.S.
“April 2nd, 2025, will go down as one of the most important days in modern American history,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Tuesday’s White House press briefing. “Our country has been one of the most open economies in the world, and we have the consumer base, hands down — the best consumer base. But too many foreign countries have their markets closed to our exports. This is fundamentally unfair.”
“The lack of reciprocity contributes to our large and persistent annual trade deficit that’s gutted our industries and hollowed out key workforces,” she continued. “But those days of America, beginning tomorrow, being ripped off, are over. American workers and businesses will be put first under President Trump, just as he promised on the campaign trail.”
The White House has kept a tight lip regarding details surrounding Trump’s planned tariff announcement, only explaining reciprocal tariffs will even the playing field for the U.S. after decades of unfair trading practices.
“I think it’s going to be something that’s going to bring a lot of wealth back to our country, tremendous wealth back to our country, actually,” Trump told the media Monday. “And, other countries are understanding, because they’ve been ripping us for 50 years, longer.”
Trump and his administration have touted that the tariff plan will encourage business in the U.S. as industries set up shop on American soil to avoid tariffs, opening up job opportunities for U.S. workers.
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White House trade advisor Peter Navarro previewed during a “Fox News Sunday” interview over the weekend that the new tariffs will generate $600 billion annually for the U.S. — or $6 trillion during the next decade.
While details of the plan remain shrouded in mystery until Trump’s announcement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously singled out 15% of the nations worldwide that have trade imbalances with the U.S., referring to them as the “dirty 15” that will likely be the focus of the tariff announcement.
“Going into April 2, some of our worst trading partners in terms of the way they treat us have already come to President Trump offering … substantial decreases in very unfair tariffs,” Bessent said Tuesday in an exclusive interview on “Mornings with Maria.”
“I’m optimistic that, April 2, some of the tariffs may not have to go on because a deal is pre-negotiated,” he added, “or that once countries receive their reciprocal tariff number, that, right after that, they will come to us and want to negotiate it down.”
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The director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, also previewed that the administration was eyeing 10 countries to 15 countries for the tariff plan, but neither Bessent nor Hassett identified the countries by name.
Trump on Sunday, however, pushed back that the tariff plan would affect “all countries,” not just a scope of roughly a dozen.
“You’d start with all countries,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “So let’s see what happens. There are many countries.”
Trump added from the Oval Office Monday that his administration will be “nice” to the foreign nations in comparison to how they have charged the U.S.
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“We’re being nicer than they were,” he said while speaking to the media following signing an unrelated executive order Monday. “We have a lot of countries, friend and foe. I always say friend and foe, but the friend in many cases is worse than the foe. They took advantage of us, and we are going to be very nice by comparison to what they were.”
“The numbers will be lower than what they’ve been charging us, and in some cases, maybe substantially lower. But we sort of have a world obligation, perhaps,” he continued. “But we’re going to be very nice, relatively speaking, we’re going to be very kind.”
The Trump administration is expected to roll out the “External Revenue Service,” which will oversee the tariff collection under the Commerce Department’s leadership.
The highly anticipated trade announcement has sparked uncertainty about the cost of goods for Americans, with Leavitt reiterating Tuesday that Trump is focused on “lowering inflation, lowering energy prices, (undertaking) massive deregulatory efforts, while simultaneously effectively implementing tariffs.”
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Leavitt said Tuesday that the tariffs will be effective immediately upon Trump’s Wednesday announcement.
The president is expected to unveil his tariff plan from the Rose Garden and will be joined by his Cabinet, Leavitt told the media Monday.
Nations across the world celebrate their own respective Liberation Days to typically mark an end to a war or oppression, similar to the U.S.’ Independence Day, which marks the establishment of the United States and an end to British rule over the 13 original colonies.
Many nations in Europe, for example, celebrate various days of liberation to mark the anniversary of their respective victories over Nazi Germany during World War II.
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Trump previously described Election Day 2024 as “Liberation Day,” as well as on Jan. 20, when he was sworn in as the nation’s 47th president.
“For American citizens, January 20th, 2025, is Liberation Day,” Trump said in his inaugural address. “It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country.”
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“As our victory showed, the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society: young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural,” he said.
