Trump won’t pause reciprocal tariffs to allow for negotiations

A number of top investors, including 2024 Trump supporter Bill Ackman, began publicly pressuring the White House to pause the April 9 tariff implementation date to allow countries to negotiate new trade deals with the United States.

However, Trump declined to entertain such a pause while fielding questions during an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We’re not looking at that. We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and they’re going to be fair deals,” the president firmly stated, noting that more than 50 countries have approached the White House following Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement last Wednesday.

The president specifically pointed to his Monday morning conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, which the White House claims opened trade negotiations between the U.S. and its island ally. White House aides told the Washington Examiner that between 50-60 U.S.-trading partners have approached the White House to open negotiations in the past week.

Trump and Netanyahu had been previously scheduled to hold a joint press conference following their meeting, but the White House announced early Monday afternoon that the event would no longer take place.

Economists and policy experts have sharply debated whether or not Trump plans on making his tariffs “permanent” or if he views them as a new negotiating tool.

Senior White House counsel for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro wrote in a Monday op-ed with the Financial Times that Trump’s “reciprocal” rollout was “just the beginning,” and the president similarly muddied the waters in the Oval Office.

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“They could be permanent tariffs, and they could also be negotiations because there are things that we need beyond tariffs,” he stated. “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.”

“Nobody but me would do this. Nobody but me would do this,” Trump concluded. “It would be nice to serve a nice, easy term, but we have an opportunity to change the fabric of our country. We have an opportunity to reset the table.”