President Trump Previews Reciprocal Tariffs: April 2 Is a ‘Liberating Day’ for America

President Donald Trump previewed upcoming reciprocal tariffs by signaling he is absolutely serious about it and deeming April 2 — when they are set to kick in — a “liberating day” for the country.

Trump made waves last month after signing a memorandum announcing a plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on all countries that tariff U.S. exports.

“On trade, I have decided, for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them. No more, no less,” Trump said in the Oval Office at the time, adding, “In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff, and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff.”

He doubled down on this on Sunday, telling reporters that April 2 — the day reciprocal tariffs are set to go into effect — will be a “liberating day” for the U.S.

“April 2 is a liberating day for our country,” Trump old reporters aboard Air Force One. “We’re getting back to some of the wealth that very, very foolish presidents gave away because they had no clue what they were doing.”

“It’s a liberation day for our country because we’re going to be getting back a lot of the wealth that we so foolishly gave up to other countries, including friend and foe,” Trump continued, signaling that there is hesitation from the administration to do this.

During an extensive interview with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out Trump’s vision, noting that there would be no tariffs for companies who moved to the United States.

“This is a slow and inexorable process and there will be no tariffs for the companies that move their manufacturing here. That’s part of it,” Bessent explained. “There is a necessary rebalancing here. China is the most imbalanced or unbalanced economy in the history of the world. They have exported deflation, their manufacturing policies have decimated our workers and decimated our communities, and by putting up a tariff wall the manufacturers will bring their production back here or we can collect a substantial amount of revenue for the U.S. government.”

“The initial phase-one tariffs from Trump 1.0, I think, are collecting $30 billion or $40 billion a year, which go to pay for a lot of tax cuts for working Americans,” he continued, explaining that President Trump simply wants “fair trade.”

“The president wants fair trade,” Bessent said. “I want to go back to your previous question too about manufacturing coming back to the U.S. because we can do it through tariffs but to be truly successful we have got to create the economic environment through permanence in our tax policy—so the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will give the manufacturers certainty—and we want to deregulate. We want to decrease the regulatory burden. And we want cheap energy.”

“So, deregulation, cheap energy, and low taxes should really set the table for a manufacturing renaissance,” Bessent continued. “It’s a multi-year process, but we’re just seeing the beginning of it.”

WATCH: Exclusive – Treasury Secretary Bessent Details Trump’s Tariff Plan to Bring Companies Back to USA