Trump official says tariff exemptions on tech are temporary. Elizabeth Warren calls trade war ‘red light, green light’ game

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren described the confusion about shifting tariff rates and how smartphones and computers were spared from reciprocal tariffs as “chaos and corruption.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump administration’s decision on Friday to exempt electronic devices — like smartphones, iPhones and laptops — from tariffs was only a temporary reprieve but those products will face separate levies, adding more confusion to an already chaotic rollout of tariffs on Chinese goods. “(Electronics are) exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick told ABC News’ “This Week” anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday. On Friday, a notice from the US Customs and Border Protection included electronic products that would not face reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren described the confusion about shifting tariff rates and how smartphones and computers were spared from reciprocal tariffs as “chaos and corruption.” “Investors will not invest in the United States when Donald Trump is playing ‘red light, green light’ with tariffs and saying, ‘Oh, and for my special donors, you get a special exemption,’” Warren said. Analysts at Wedbush Securities on Saturday had called the tariff exemptions on electronics “the best news possible for tech investors” and that “firms like Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft and the broader tech industry can breathe a huge sigh of relief this weekend into Monday.”