Trump Announces New Wave of Tariffs, Including Autos, Pharmaceuticals

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his administration will soon impose tariffs on automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and other industries, adding to his existing "reciprocal tariffs" set to take effect on April 2.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Trump stated, "We'll be announcing cars very shortly. We already announced steel, as you know, and aluminum. We'll be announcing pharmaceuticals at some point, because we have to have pharmaceuticals. So we'll be announcing some of these things in the very near future, not the long future, the very near future," according to a report by CNBC.

Trump further expanded his list of potential tariff targets at a later White House event, adding lumber and semiconductors, stating that tariffs on these sectors would be implemented "down the road." However, he also hinted at the possibility of granting exemptions to certain countries on the reciprocal tariffs.

When pressed on whether sectoral tariffs would commence on April 2, Trump initially replied, "Yeah, it's going to be everything." He then clarified, "but not all tariffs are included that day." He also suggested that the announcement of auto tariffs could precede the implementation of reciprocal tariffs.

"We'll be announcing that fairly soon over the next few days, probably, and then April 2 comes, that'll be reciprocal tariffs," he stated.

These pronouncements follow a report by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday indicating that the White House was likely to exclude industry-specific tariffs from the initial April 2 implementation, despite Trump's previous suggestion that both types of tariffs would commence simultaneously.

Trump's latest tariff pronouncements come on the heels of his decision to impose 25% tariffs on all countries purchasing oil and gas from Venezuela.

"We've been ripped off by every country in the world," Trump asserted at the Cabinet meeting. "We did something with Venezuela, which is long in the making. And we'll be announcing cars very shortly."

A White House official told CNBC earlier on Monday that the tariffs targeting specific sectors "may happen or may not."

"No final decision's been made as far as sectoral being tacked onto reciprocal," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Major stock indexes surged on Monday following reports suggesting that Trump may be softening his stance on tariffs. The official did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for additional comment following Trump's remarks at the Cabinet meeting.