• On Friday the Trump administration decided that semiconductors and other electronic components were exempt from reciprocal tariffs imposed on China.
• That exemption will be short lived as the White House readies tariffs for that product category to be released later this week.
• Trump’s on again, off again moves with tariffs are causing turmoil in the market and shaking investor confidence in the country.

Despite running his campaign on lowering prices for Americans, President Donald Trump is instead causing mass confusion among both his citizens and the world.

Last week Wednesday, so-called reciprocal tariffs that imposed a tariff of as much as 50 percent on some nations went into effect. However, soon after they were in effect, Trump backtracked and instead introduced a blanket 10 percent tariff on all countries while a 90 day clock ticks down for leaders to make a deal with the reality TV star. China however, was not exempted from tariffs and its tariffs actually went up last week, twice.

On Friday though, Trump backtracked again, seemingly realising where all of the electronics his people use are made. An exemption on several categories of products which can be grouped under the umbrella of “electronics” was announced just before the weekend. As many as 20 product categories including flat panel displays, semiconductors and other components were exempted by the White House.

Trump has been adamant that production of items such as iPhones should be produced in the US. It’s a nice thought but, the US doesn’t have the capabilities to produce electronics at the scale its economy demands. Such capacity would take decades to build up, as showcased by China which has spent literal decades improving its manufacturing capabilities.

As the tariffs stood on Friday, US citizens were primed to be paying ludicrous sums for basic electronics, if Chinese manufacturers even wanted to do business in the US.

Electronics from China will still be tariffed at 20 percent per Al Jazeera, but not the 145 percent tariff the US imposed on Chinese imports last week. At least, not for now. Trump has apparently said that new tariffs for semiconductors would be announced this week so the reprieve from the madness is temporary.

“When the President issued his reciprocal tariffs, our government at the time specifically said that chips and semiconductors, which are critical components of our national security, were going to be dealt with through a separate Commerce authority known as a 232. That was always the plan because those components are so essential to our national security. We need to have a separate process for dealing with how to reshore those essential industries … There are no exemptions,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, said in a statement.

While one of the policies that Trump ran on was tariffing every country to hell and gone, that move has proved to be flawed, deeply flawed.

US markets may be recovering following the fear, uncertainty and doubt the tariffs initially inspired but “extreme fear” is still guiding the hands of investors per CNN’s Fear and Greed index.

There is a lot of confusion in the market, largely due to Trump’s slapdash decisions. For instance, the decision to pause reciprocal tariffs last week came to Trump in the early morning, after the tariffs came into effect.

Apple reportedly airlifted around 600 tons of iPhones from India in a bid to avoid the forthcoming tariffs and that’s just the one report that made headlines, we’re sure others have quietly been stockpiling tech in anticipation of these tariffs.

It’s all just very confusing looking from the the outside into the US and we have to wonder how whatever tariffs are placed on semiconductors and other electronics will impact the market. Given that big tech is what seems to be driving the US economy these days, these tariffs could cement big tech billionaires into Trump’s camp of have them looking for the nearest off ramp.