CNBC’s Jim Cramer criticized the Trump administration over what he said is “vast confusion” about the tariff plan that went into effect Tuesday.
“There’s just vast confusion,” Cramer exclaimed on Tuesday’s “Squawk on the Street.” “No one knows. I mean, the automakers don’t know what this is going to mean.
“There’s no clarity whatsoever,” he added. “Anyone who thinks that there’s clarity is just completely wrong.”
Americans woke up Tuesday morning to a trade war as Trump’s 25 percent tariff plan against Mexico and Canada went into effect. The U.S.’s neighbors have their own retaliatory tariffs planned, and experts are concerned that Americans will soon experience price hikes.
Trump had proposed the tariffs shortly after taking office. After reaching a deal with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, the plan was put on pause for a month before officially going into effect Tuesday.
Cramer said during Trump’s campaign that he wasn’t sure the tariff plan would work in Americans’ favor. He said he “of course” thought the plan would increase inflation across the country.
“I mean, when you see tariffs like that, obviously you think about 1929 to ’32 and realize how wrong they are,” he said about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act that devastated the economy in 1930.
On Tuesday, the CNBC analyst criticized the implementation of the tariffs and said there was a “lack of thought” that he called “stunning.”
“It is a huge amount of money involved,” he said.
Later in the segment, Cramer said, “we don’t have any plan!”
“We need a plan,” he said.
