WASHINGTON — Less than one hour before the stock market closed on Monday, journalists gathered in the Oval Office for their only chance of the day to ask President Donald Trump about the turmoil caused by his tariff plans.
Are the new tariffs, scheduled to take effect on Wednesday, a bargaining chip to reach better trade deals? Or are they etched in stone in a mission to revamp the global economy?
Investors around the world were hanging on Trump’s every word, but he did little to clear up the situation.
“It can both be true,” he said. “There can be permanent tariffs, and there can also be negotiations.”
The markets skidded to a close. At a time when foreign leaders and business executives are desperate for clarity, the White House is sending mixed messages as it pursues conflicting goals.
Advisers have tried with some success to tamp down a days-long stock selloff by talking up tariffs as a starting point for negotiations, which could mollify Wall Street and jittery Republicans in Congress. The S&P 500 stock index opened up 3.4% on Tuesday. But the president continues to insist that he can raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue with his new taxes on foreign imports, and he’s shown no willingness to back down from an agenda that he’s advocated for decades, even before entering politics.
The ongoing paradox could erode confidence in Trump’s leadership at home and abroad after he promised a booming economy and tax cuts, not depleted retirement accounts and fears of a recession. For now, as the tariffs are set to kick in, there’s no clear resolution for what could be the most significant overhaul of international trade in a generation. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, urged the White House to “settle the situation.”
He said the “perception as to whether or not there’s an end game is very important.” Tillis said he is “giving the administration the benefit of the doubt” for now. But he added: “You’ve got to get it done as quickly as you can get it done.”
The administration has yet to articulate its goals for any talks with trading partners, other than to suggest that negotiations could take several months and that nations might also need to dramatically overhaul their tax systems and regulations to satisfy Trump’s demands. Canadian and European officials are uncertain about how to proceed even as Trump administrations officials insist that as many as 70 nations are looking to start negotiations.
Trump insists that he wants to erase trade deficits that have developed as the U.S. buys more products from other countries than it sells. On Tuesday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social that he spoke with South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, about “their tremendous and unsustainable” surplus.
“We have the confines and probability of a great DEAL for both countries,” he wrote. “Their top TEAM is on a plane heading to the U.S., and things are looking good.” But on Monday, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would “eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Trump appeared unmoved. Asked if he would hold off on new tariffs on Israel, the president said “maybe not.”
“Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” he said, citing billions of dollars in military assistance to the country.
Trump has long advocated for tariffs as the solution to economic challenges, and his insistence that other countries are ripping off the United States is one of his most consistently expressed beliefs over the years.
Last Thursday, while flying to Florida aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that “the tariffs give us great power to negotiate.”
On the flight back to Washington on Sunday, Trump described the tariffs as a necessity and said he was undeterred by the cratering stock market, adding that “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.” Peter Navarro, a leading trade adviser, has also taken a hard line. “This is not a negotiation,” Navarro wrote in the Financial Times. “For the U.S., it is a national emergency triggered by trade deficits caused by a rigged system.”
But other officials like Kevin Hassett, the top White House economic adviser, and Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said scores of countries are lining up to negotiate with Trump over tariffs.
“It’s going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June,” Bessent told Fox News. He said Trump “gave himself maximum negotiating leverage, and just when he achieved the maximum leverage, he’s willing to start talking.”
Speaking Monday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, Stephen Miran, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the mixed messages over the purpose of the tariffs reflected a “healthy” internal debate.
“There are conflicting narratives because everybody has got an opinion,” he said. “And that’s fine. Disagreement is how you can enhance your arguments and avoid groupthink, and I think that’s very healthy.”
