The administration later walked back its initial proposal, and announced April 9 it would immediately hike tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, but scale back reciprocal tariffs on other countries for 90 days to a baseline of 10%. In response, China proceeded to boost its tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%.

"You don't know whether or not China's going to eat it," Trump said of the potential for tariffs on Chinese goods to increase consumer prices.