Just an hour before the stock market closed on Monday, journalists gathered in an oval office to get their only chance to ask President Donald Trump about the disruption caused by the tariff plan.
Are the new tariffs scheduled to come into effect on Wednesday a negotiation tip to reach a better trade deal? Or are they etched into stones on their mission to revamp the global economy?
Investors around the world were on every word of Trump, but he did little to resolve the situation.
“It could be both true,” he said. “Permanent tariffs may exist and there are negotiations too.”
The market slipped to the end. When foreign leaders and executives are making clear, the White House is sending mixed messages to pursue conflicting goals.
The advisors have successfully stolen stock sales for several days by talking tariffs as a starting point for negotiations that could soften Wall Street and unstable Republicans in Congress. But the president continues to insist that new taxes on foreign imports can raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue, and he has not shown any willingness to retreat from the agenda he has defended for decades, even before he enters politics.
Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, spoke from the Senate to blow up the widespread White House tariffs imposed on almost every country and territory in the world. “Donald Trump uses tariffs in the stupidest way possible,” Schumer said Friday. “In fact, Trump slapped the penguins tariffs, but not Putin.”
The ongoing paradox could erode confidence in Trump’s leadership both domestically and internationally after committing to Trump’s economy and tax cuts. For now, tariffs are set to begin, so there is no clear solution for what could be the most important overhaul of international trade in generations.
When reporters asked Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, if he understood the White House plans, he answered with his own question – “Who?”
As a result, the US stock market was extremely volatile. The S&P 500 Stock Index first recorded profits on Tuesday morning on possible negotiations, but only closed 1.57% as the White House said on Wednesday it would be 104% with China’s tariffs combined.
Sen. Tom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, urged the White House to “settle the situation.”
He said, “It’s very important to know whether there’s an endgame or not.” Tillis said for now it “is giving the administration the bounty of doubt.” But he added, “As long as you can do it, you have to get it done quickly.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Trump is causing economic disruption before and after tariffs.
“Who makes long-term investments based on that?” she said. “Would you hire people and train workers based on your hope that Donald Trump will not change his mind over and over again?”
Trump claimed on Tuesday that “America will soon be very rich again,” and that his team is negotiating with other countries.
“I call them tailored deals,” he said. “Not off the rack. A highly tailored transaction.”
The administration has yet to clarify the goals for talks with its trading partners other than suggesting that negotiations could take months and that the nation might need to dramatically overhaul tax and regulations to meet Trump’s demands. Officials in Canada and Europe are unsure of how it should proceed, despite Trump administration officials claiming that as many as 70 countries are about to start negotiations.
Trump argues that he wants to erase the trade deficit that has evolved as the US purchases more products from other countries than it sells. On Tuesday morning, Trump posted about the true society, talking to South Korea’s representative president Han Duck So about his “wonderful and unsustainable” surplus.
“We have a lot of scope and odds in both countries,” he writes. “Their top team is on a plane heading to the US and things look good.”
But Trump seemed unmoved when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he would “eliminate the trade deficit with the United States.”
When asked if they would refrain from new tariffs on Israel, the president said, “Maybe it isn’t.”
“Don’t forget, we will help Israel a lot,” he said.
Trump has long advocated tariffs as a solution to economic challenges. His claim that other countries are tearing them apart from the United States is one of his most consistently expressed beliefs over the years.
Last Thursday, while flying to Florida in Air Force 1, Trump told reporters, “Taxes give us great power to negotiate.”
On a flight back to Washington on Sunday, Trump explained that tariffs were necessary, saying it was unshakable to the crater stock market, adding that “sometimes you have to take medication to fix something.”
Major trade adviser Peter Navarro also took the hardline.
“This is not negotiation,” Navarro wrote in his financial era. “For the United States, it’s a national emergency caused by the trade deficit caused by the equipped system.”
But other officials like Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said many countries line up to negotiate with Trump over tariffs.
“It’s going to be busy April, May, maybe June,” Bescent told Fox News. He said that Trump “gives him the maximum negotiation leverage and when he achieves the maximum leverage, he wants to start the story.”
Speaking Monday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, Stephen Milan, chairman of Trump’s Economic Advisory Council, said the mixed messages about the purpose of the tariffs reflect “sound” internal debate.
“Everyone has an opinion, so there are conflicting stories,” he said. “And that’s fine. Disagreement is a way that allows you to reinforce your discussion and avoid group thinking, and I think it’s very healthy.”
Regarding whether the deal can be reached before tariffs take effect, Milan said, “The choice will ultimately remain with the president.”
Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute with his right foot, said Trump is pursuing an incompatible goal.
“These tariffs are not a tool to restructure global trading orders, move the US economy from services to manufacturing, and become a tool to negotiate lower trade barriers,” he said during a panel discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Institute.
Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, denounced the ambiguity of Trump’s aides, saying some of them “just want to talk.”
“There is some uncertainty about what the President’s purpose is, and that’s part of his aides and I think I’ve made contradictory reports on television this weekend,” he said.
Kennedy said he supports Trump’s trade targets. But he also called from businesses in his state and he had no answers to them as to what to expect.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso said Bescent visited with Republican lawmakers on Friday and told them that tariffs are “a high-level mark with the ultimate goal of reducing them” unless other countries retaliate.
“The president is a deal maker, if nothing else, and he will continue to deal with each of them and country by country,” Barrasso said.
However, China has already retaliated with a 34% tariff plan, urging Trump on Monday to threaten an additional 50% tariff on the country with a total of 104%.
The US president had a good positive conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Isgar about a 6% rise in Japan’s stock index on Tuesday, but it was still unclear how the trade would work.
According to World Trade Organization data, Trump has imposed a 24% tariff on Japan and another 25% tariff on automobile imports, much higher than the average tariff rate Japan charges at 1.9%. Trump calls car rates “permanent,” setting up permanent baseline tariffs in most countries, suggesting restrictions on how much interest rates will fall through negotiations.
Louisiana House Speaker Mike Johnson said Americans understand Trump is trying to deal with trade imbalances and he emphasized his trust in the president.
“We’re going to give him the space he needs to do that,” he said Monday.
Associated Press Writer Christopher Al Gerber contributed to this report.
Customs duties or duties are taxes on products purchased from overseas and are used in virtually all countries.
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