Greer Takes CNBC Hot Seat as Tariff Wars and Export-Control Feud Swirl

Jamieson Greer is booked on CNBC's morning show Thursday, stepping in front of cameras seven days after a blue-wave election in which most voters said President Donald Trump's tariff policies made the economy worse. The U.S. trade representative's import duties have already sparked trade wars with several American economic partners, and Democrats are expected to make them a top target once they control the House and Senate.

The legal pressure is mounting too. Trump's sweeping Section 301 duties and the 50% tariffs he placed on a slate of Canadian goods are already being challenged in multiple court cases, according to CNBC. The White House has spent the week since Republicans' midterm losses defending the tariff agenda rather than retreating from it.

Greer's office isn't standing still. It is running an investigation into foreign excess capacity in manufacturing, a probe that could open the door to yet more tariffs.

The trade chief is also tangled in the infidelity and national security scandal surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Axios reported that Greer was in the White House Situation Room last Thursday when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on why he had resisted implementing export controls, particularly on Megaspeed, the company at the center of the sex-and-spy scandal. Greer and other Cabinet officials backed the controls, and Trump said, according to Axios, that they should get it done — but Lutnick kept delaying.

Commerce Department spokeswoman Kristen Eichamer told CNBC that Bessent and Lutnick had no such conversation in the Situation Room, pushing back on the Axios account as Greer prepares to field questions on live television.