Published: April 3, 2025 at 3:50 a.m. ET

President Donald Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs — with that massive chart behind him — drew puzzled reactions initially.

How did Vietnam — ostensibly a country that the U.S. would want to cultivate to isolate leading adversary China — get hit with one of the highest tariff rates? How come key ally Japan got slapped with a 24% tariff? How did Israel, which just lowered its tariffs on U.S. goods to literally zero, get hit with a 17% tariff?

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