Based on the messaging released by the administration, Trump’s tariff chaos appears to be aimed at pressuring other countries to agree to deals with the U.S., implicitly on terms favorable to the U.S.
On some occasions, Trump and his advisers have indicated that such deals are on the verge of completion or will be soon. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent even said that some trade deals could be announced as soon as this week, with Trump himself echoing that sentiment earlier this week.
However, Trump appeared to give the game away on Tuesday when he let it slip that the U.S. doesn’t “have to sign” any trade deals with other countries. The comment came during the president’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in front of the press at the White House.
“Everyone says, ‘When, when, when, are you going to sign deals?’ We don’t have to sign deals!” Trump said.
Trump Accidentally Admits He Hasn’t Made Any Trade Deals https://t.co/MOZwf8AR2s
— The New Republic (@newrepublic) May 6, 2025
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“We don’t have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market; we don’t want a piece of their market. We don’t care about their market. They want a piece of our market.”
CNN wrote earlier this week that Trump “needs a trade deal- badly.”
“We’re negotiating with many countries, but at the end of this, I’ll set my own deals because I set the deal, they don’t set the deal, I set the deal,” Trump said Sunday, seeming to forget that that’s not how “deals” work.
“This is not like a big deal that’s gonna be signed — in some cases, we’ll sign them, but we don’t have to sign them. I’ll be setting the deal; I’ll be setting the tariff.”
There was a significant development on trade talks Tuesday, with the news that talks will occur between the U.S. and China, per CNBC. Bessent and U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer are set to meet this weekend in Switzerland with their Chinese counterparts to discuss “economic and trade matters.”
The meetings will take place on both Saturday and Sunday.
“My sense is that this will be about de-escalation, not about the big trade deal,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “But we’ve got to de-escalate before we can move forward.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
