Hey, this is Kavita. I'm currently in June, Alaska where I just finished my first day as a general assignment news intern at KTOO Public Media.

This podcast was recorded up.

3.29pm on Tuesday the 18th.

Things may have changed by the time you hear it.

Thanks, enjoy the show.

Yay! A junior sprout!

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. The Trump Administration announced new tariffs on China yesterday afternoon and China has already struck back.

If there's a retaliation against our farmers and our industrial workers, our ranchers, if any of that goes on, we're going to kick in another $257 billion.

I'm Tamer Keith, I cover the White House.

I'm Scott Horsley. I also cover the White House.

I'm Marlaison National Political Correspondent.

So this is just the latest round of tariffs in what seems to be a ping-pong game.

Well, it's a ping-pong game where you keep hitting the ball harder and harder.

It's an escalation in President Trump's trade war.

He just late yesterday announced tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese imports to the US.

And while up until now they have sort of tried to avoid consumer products,

now these are going to be things that consumers are going to see in the stores.

And Donald Trump says that if China retaliates with tariffs of their own, which China has already done to the first round of this trade war, he'll put even more tariffs on.

We don't want to do, but we probably will have no choice.

So eventually tariffs have the kind of effect that every single economist will tell you, which is they will raise prices for consumers.

And we're very much near that point now.

Where when you're at that point now, the big question is, is the US economy big enough as Trump cabinet officials will say that it can absorb this?

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