Three months after President Donald Trump predicted his so-called reciprocal tariff threats would bring enough countries to his door seeking trade agreements in 90 days, Trump has again put off imposing the massive import taxes after pressure from his top treasury official.
Citing sources, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that delayed the tariff hike on almost all U.S. trading partners until August 1 at the request of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who asked for more time for him and other trade negotiators to push for deals with several large trading partners.
The move continued a pattern set in the weeks immediately following Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement of import taxes on goods from nearly every nation on earth — taxes that are paid by American importers and passed to consumers in the form of higher prices — when Bessent convinced the president to implement a 90-day pause on the taxes after global stock and bond markets tumbled.
According to the Journal, Trump made the decision to once again delay the tariffs for another few weeks after a series of phone calls with advisers made in between games of golf at his Bedminister, New Jersey, resort over the weekend.
The president was reportedly considering setting an August deadline — or simply letting new tariff rates chosen by him go into effect immediately following announcements made in letters to foreign leaders posted to social media.
He told people he spoke with over the weekend that he is unhappy with the slow pace of trade talks and the relatively low number of nations that have come to Washington seeking deals that would provide the favorable terms he craves, the Journal noted.
But Bessent and others were able to convey the importance of a delay to the ongoing talks, and the president eventually agreed to the pause along with sending out a series of letters announcing new tariff rates on imports from various nations as a negotiating tactic, the Journal stated.
The bizarre, poorly-written letters to American trading partners cite ‘unsustainable’ trade deficits as justification for the tariffs, which will be at rates ranging from 25 to 40 percent on any imports. Initial letters were addressed to heads of state or government in Japan, South Korea, Burma, Kazakstan, Laos, Malaysia and South Africa as well as other nations.
On Tuesday, he said at least seven more letters could be released, including one threatening new tariffs on imports from the European Union.
Trump also doubled down on his threat to force Americans to pay exorbitant tariffs on imports in an attempt to reverse decades of globalization and return the United States economy to one based on manufacturing rather than services.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said new rates of import taxes laid out in a series of letters to various countries’ heads of state or government “WILL START BEING PAID ON AUGUST 1, 2025.”
He added: “There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change. In other words, all money will be due and payable starting AUGUST 1, 2025 - No extensions will be granted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
He later threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on copper imports and a whopping 200 percent tax on pharmaceutical imports, citing supposed national security concerns.
Trump frequently claims tariffs are paid by foreign governments, even though they are import taxes charged by the federal government and paid by importers who often pass them along to consumers in higher prices.
Since announcing the “liberation day” tariffs in April he has routinely extended the self-imposed deadline, leading analysts to bake that tendency into their market predictions as the “TACO” trade, short for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
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