CNN reporter: Trump's tariffs “are meant to ... break the global trading operation that has been built over the last 70 or 80 years”
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From the April 3, 2025, edition of CNN's CNN News Central
ALAYNA TREENE (CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER): I think the White House has clearly been very intentional in its messaging of this, the idea that they believe that this is a quote, unquote "liberation." That event yesterday in the Rose Garden was in some ways meant to be a celebration. And it really cuts to this core belief that President Donald Trump has, which is that the United States has been taken advantage of for several years now. That's really what we saw these tariffs, by design, are meant to do. Essentially, break the global trading operation that has been built over the last 70 or 80 years, and completely restructure it, in really the president's image.
Now, that also goes against what we know many people on Capitol Hill, Republicans, other defenders of the president, who have argued that he's at his heart a pragmatist, he's a dealmaker, that this is, you know, he'll back off eventually. It's very clear that that is not the case. And that was very clear in the continued messaging we have heard from some of the president's top advisers.