Quote Originally Posted by ClydeR View Post
Trump's approach to trade is Stupid with a capital S. Today, he said the deals we've been waiting on won't actually be agreements. Instead, Trump will just specify the tariff that each country must pay and if they continue selling to the U.S., then he will call it a "deal." If that was always the plan, then why didn't he do that in the beginning? What was the purpose of Liberation Day? This new approach is a retreat from Liberation Day.
I was sooo right when I posted the above, as shown by the below.

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. would begin unilaterally informing many of its trading partners of new tariff rates, rather than securing deals with the countries individually as the White House has repeatedly promised.

After his sweeping April tariff plan sent markets spiraling and set in motion a global trade war, Trump reversed course and issued a 90-day pause on the new duties for every affected country except China, opening the door for individual countries to negotiate deals with his trade team.

But in remarks at a business roundtable in the United Arab Emirates, the final stop on a multiday Middle East trip, Trump said that while “150 countries” were seeking to make deals with the U.S., it was “not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us.”

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