President Donald Trump offered a strange response when asked about the state of the 90 trade deals he promised three months ago, with the self-imposed deadline looming this Wednesday. He claimed that the deals are “all done” before immediately contradicting himself.
In April, Trump announced “Liberation Day,” on which he rolled out tariffs on dozens of countries. The president said the moves were meant to bring U.S. trading partners to the negotiating table in the hopes of lowering the U.S. trade deficit. Trump has long fixated on trade deficits, which occur when countries import more than they export.
Reporters have occasionally asked Trump about the status of his “90 deals” pledge, and those questions have become more frequent as Wednesday approaches. On Monday, Trump unveiled a new round of tariffs via a series of form letters to various countries – mainly U.S. allies – informing them that the U.S. will tariff their goods at even higher rates.
“If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge,” Trump wrote to the leaders of several countries.
On Monday, Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, where a reporter asked a blunt question.
“On tariffs, what happened to 90 trade deals in 90 days?” she asked.
Trump responded by saying that, despite the added tariffs he just
Oh, we’ve spoken to everybody. We know every– it’s all done. I told you. I told you we’ll make some deals, but for the most part, we’re gonna send a letter. We’re gonna saying, “Welcome to the United States. If you’d like to participate in the greatest, most successful country ever” – I mean, we’re doing better than ever. We have– I don’t think– and you’re gonna see these numbers soon. We’ve never had numbers like this. We’ve never had investment like this.Uh, we have more than 90. We’re gonna have much more than 90. But most of those are gonna be sent a letter. This is gonna be exactly what I sent. Now, we’ve made a deal with United Kingdom. We’ve made a deal with China. We’ve made a deal with– we’re close to making a deal with India.Others, we’ve met with, and we don’t think we’re gonna be able to make a deal. So, we just send them a letter. “Do you wanna– do you wanna play ball? This is what you have to pay.”So, we’re– as far as I’m concerned, we&
#8217;re done with sending out letters to various countries, telling them how much tariffs they have to pay. Some will maybe adjust a little bit depending if they have a, you know, cause. We’re not gonna be unfair about it. And actually, it’s a small fraction compared to what we should be getting. We should– we could be asking for much more. But for the sake of relationships that we’ve had with a lot of really good countries, we’re doing the way I do it. But we could be getting a lot more. We could ask for a lot more than what we’re asking for.
Trump has long insisted that tariffs are paid by the countries that export the tariffed goods to the U.S. However, tariffs are paid by the business that is importing those products.
Watch above via Fox News.