‘He likes the game too much': Why Trump isn't sweating his lack of trade deals

Politico

19 hours ago

Since announcing his plans for an historic escalation of U.S. tariffs at a Rose Garden event on April 2 — what the White House hailed as 'Liberation Day' — Trump has attempted to have it both ways on trade deals.
His administration appears fully committed to tariffs, maintaining a baseline 10 percent duty on nearly every trading partner. He also imposed higher levies on certain sectors, like automobile and auto parts imports, with more to come, under the auspices of reshoring business, protecting national security and raising new revenue.
In the meantime, his trio of trade negotiators — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer — have embarked on a mad sprint to secure multiple deals with foreign governments, without authority to significantly lower the new barriers.
The result has been a convoluted process with little progress and no end in sight. Countries have sent representatives to the U.S. on repeated visits to negotiate, but some have failed to secure meetings. Those who have secured facetime with Trump officials have sometimes left confused about U.S. demands or have been later seen their countries chastised by Trump on social media.
Even as Tuesday's deadline approaches, the White House and Trump's top lieutenants are sending conflicting messages about how much the deadline matters. Both Bessent and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett were spreading the word on Capitol Hill and in television appearances that Trump would likely extend the deadline, even as Trump himself ruled out such a possibility. 'I think we could have trade wrapped up by Labor Day,' Bessent told Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo last week.
White House aides privately stress that Trump is serious about the tariff deadline and making deals. They do acknowledge, however, that notching a deal with a country now that they see as aimed at correcting trade imbalances doesn't preclude the president from slapping tariffs on a country in the future over non-trade related issues, like he did with fentanyl tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
'To assume that he sees this as a game — he's the president of the United States. He understands what's at stake here. He's not willy-nilly trying to sow economic discord just for TV ratings,' said one White House official, granted anonymity to share the president's thinking. 'He understands what he's doing here, and there's very clear goals that have been outlined.'