Bananas, coffee, beef, tomatoes, fruit juices, nuts and spices are, apparently, no longer as big a threat to national security as they were in April, when Donald Trump first announced his plan to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on just about every country on Earth.

On April 2, Trump issued an executive order in which he said that persistent US trade deficits constituted an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to the national security and economy of the US and declared a national emergency to deal with that “threat.” That was the justification for the tariffs, even though the US had had a trade deficit in every year since 1975.

US President Donald Trump is scrambling as America grapples with cost-of-living woes.Credit: AP

On Friday, Trump issued a new executive order, modifying the scope of his tariffs to exempt more than 100 products from the reciprocal tariffs.

The about-face came, of course, after sweeping wins by the Democrats in last week’s New York mayoral election and in a number of races for state governors and other senior state officials, with affordability the top of mind issue in those contests.

Trump’s popularity and perceptions of his credibility as a manager of the economy have been sinking, raising concerns within the Republican ranks about their fate at next year’s midterms.

That’s not, of course, the rationale presented by the administration for the rolling back of some of Trump’s tariffs.

“Many of the announced trade deals and ongoing negotiations involve countries that produce substantial volumes of agricultural products that are not grown or produced in sufficient quantities in the United States,” the White House said.

Duh! The administration has imposed reciprocal tariffs (which may or may not be legal, depending on what the US Supreme Court decides) on plenty of countries that produce things that the US either........

© The Age