Trump Confronted on ‘Mixed Messages’ From Administration About Whether Tariffs Are Permanent
President Donald Trump was confronted over mixed messaging on his tariffs by different members of his administration on Monday while fielding questions from reporters alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sunday, Trump surrogates discussed the sweeping tariffs on numerous Sunday shows. Trade Adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News the tariffs would go into effect Thursday as scheduled and they were non-negotiable.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC News the tariffs could be negotiated while Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett bragged to ABC News calls were flooding in from world leaders who wanted to negotiate.
Trump also contributed to the confusion last week when he first declared the tariffs were non-negotiable but similarly said his phone had been ringing off the hook.
Monday, amid a third day of market chaos over the tariffs, a reporter pressed the president about the “mixed messages.”
A reporter asked, “Do you expect any of these deals to be made before April 9th? And secondly, there have been some mixed messages from your administration. You’re talking about negotiations, and yet others in your administration are saying that these tariffs are actually permanent.”
Trump replied, “Well, it can both be true. There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations because there are things that we need beyond tariffs.”
The president complained that he also wanted access to foreign markets such as China’s and concluded:
And so there are a lot of things outside of tariffs, but tariffs are very important. But there are lot of things like opening up countries that were totally closed. China is essentially a closed country. In fact, it is a closed country. And what they do is they charge tariffs so that if you sell cars or if you sell anything, nobody’s going to buy it because the price is out of control. But that’s true with a lot of other countries also. So we’re going to get fair deals and good deals with every country. And if we don’t, we’re going to have nothing to do with them. They’re not going to be allowed to participate in the United States.
Watch above via CNN.
