In a meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, along with tech CEOs in March last year, President Donald Trump said the US was being treated unfairly, with China imposing tariffs of 150 to 200 percent, and India of 175 percent.
The meeting was about semiconductor manufacturing and how the supply chain could be brought to the United States. Trump was “unhappy” with Taiwan’s dominance of the chip industry, where it produces about 70% of semiconductors and 90% of advanced chips.
Details of the meeting were contained in a book entitled “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” written by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
The meeting on March 10, 2025 brought together leaders from major technology companies, including IBM, Dell, HPE, HP, Qualcomm, and Intel.
Read also: “Giving me bullshit numbers”: Trump’s row with Lutnick over Indian tariffs on US exposed
“The United States has given up on everything,” Trump said, adding that “ninety-nine percent of the business is in Taiwan.”
Elon Musk, who headed the government’s now-defunct Ministry of Efficiency, said, “US chip manufacturing capacity is weak. Especially for the most advanced chips. The US will only have thirty percent of TSMC’s capacity in 2029. If China invades Taiwan, the entire economy will collapse.”
Trump then asked: “What puts the Taiwanese in the lead?” Turning to the CEOs, he said: “Aren’t you better off being here? No tariffs, less risk.”
The president then warned that those who do not build in the United States will have to pay huge tariffs, adding that China and India are treating the United States unfairly.
“Those who will not build here will have to pay huge tariffs… not 20%, like 100%. We are being treated unfairly,
Trump said that China imposes tariffs on us ranging between 150 and 200 percent, and India 175 percent.
Trump’s dispute with Lutnick over Indian tariffs
The book again references India’s tariffs when Trump held a “very tense meeting” on March 26 with the president’s economic team on tariff strategy.
Speaking about the “real” tariff numbers, Trump said: “No one gave me any numbers.”
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Trump was convinced that the tariffs imposed by India on the United States were much higher than those recorded by the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
The president said: “Concrete facts about how much tariffs China imposes on us, and how much tariffs India imposes on us. Give me real numbers.”
When Lutnick presented the president with the tasks registered with the US Trade Representative, Trump lost his temper and accused his administration of providing him with false data.
“No, those are bullshit numbers,” Trump said, describing the government data as “ridiculous nonsense,” despite Lutnick’s best attempts to convince the US president.
These arguments took place in the run-up to Trump’s “Liberation Day” exercise, where he imposed 25% tariffs on India. A few months later, Trump doubled tariffs to 50% on purchases of Russian oil.
Earlier in February, India and the US agreed on a framework for a bilateral trade agreement. Under the February 7 framework, the United States agreed to reduce tariffs on Indian goods to 18 percent from 25 percent, lower than the duties faced by many competing exporting countries.
However, a US Supreme Court ruling overturned blanket tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, and Washington’s move to impose a temporary 10 percent tariff on imports from all countries prompted the two countries to reconsider key elements of the proposed framework.
Both countries aim to finalize the agreement before July 24, when most US imports will once again face normal MFN tariff rates, and the tariff framework will be restored before April 2025.
