US President Donald Trump. — Bloomberg
PRESIDENT Donald Trump acknowledged that his sweeping tariff programme had risked imperiling him politically, but said he would not rush deals to appease nervous investors during a town hall on Wednesday.
“Yeah,” Trump said when asked by NewsNation host Bill O’Reilly if he agreed that his tariff proposals had a perception problem. “But I’m an honest guy, and we have to save the country.”
Trump went on to agree there was a significant political risk to his efforts, and that they could result in Republicans losing control of the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections if those perceptions don’t change – but said he remained determined to push on.
“I just think that I’ll be able to convince people how good this is,” Trump said.
Trump spoke after a Bureau of Economic Analysis estimate showed that the United States economy contracted at the start of the year for the first time since 2022, led by a surge of pre-tariffs imports and a reduction in government spending.
That read, paired with an ADP Research report showing smaller-than-expected hiring in April, prompted a volatile day on Wall Street.
Many investors are eager to see progress in trade talks, with Trump and aides pledging to quickly execute marathon negotiations with dozens of trading partners.
Trump said he had “potential deals” with South Korea, Japan, and India but that he was “in less of a hurry” than those expressing anxiety over the economy.
“We are sitting on the cat bird seat. They want us. We don’t need them,” Trump said, adding that India wanted to “make a deal so bad.”
Trump also said that while there was a “very good chance” he would strike a deal with China, “we’re going to make it on our terms and it’s got to be fair.”
When O’Reilly said that he had heard some deals with other countries had been essentially agreed, and that their announcements could prompt a surge in stock prices, Trump said they were “potential deals,” then said, “that’s OK, it can wait two weeks.”
Despite Trump’s bravado, the president acknowledged his tariffs were difficult to explain because his approach demanded that he had to stake an extreme position to strike a deal, only to pull back as part of talks.
“You can’t just be hard line, and I’m going to run right through a wall and I’m never going to go over it or around it, I’m going to go straight – you have to be able to dodge and move,” Trump added.
Aides have worked to signal to Wall Street that negotiations were proceeding apace. Earlier Wednesday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said he believed the United States was nearing an announcement of a first tranche of trade deals.
“I would say that we have deals that are close,” Greer said Wednesday in an interview with Fox News.
“As a negotiator, I don’t like to negotiate in public, but I will say we’re talking about a matter of weeks and not months, to have some initial deals announced.”
Greer said he was not “finish line close” with negotiations with India, but said he had a standing call with the country’s chief trade negotiator. — Bloomberg
Stephanie Lai writes for Bloomberg. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
