President Donald Trump highlighted a new detail about a "major trade deal" he's been teasing all week.
The U.S. president first let the cat out of the bag Tuesday, during a White House meeting with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, and then Wednesday night announced that a trade deal – with "a big, and highly respected country," no less – would be announced Thursday morning at 10 a.m. EST in the Oval Office, but he could barely contain his excitement hours ahead of the event.
"This should be a very big and exciting day for the United States of America and the United Kingdom," Trump posted on Truth Social at 5:42 a.m. EST. "Press Conference at The Oval Office, 10A.M. Thank you!"
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Not even a half hour later, he spooled out a few additional details about his less-and-less surprising announcement.
"The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come," Trump posted at 6:08 a.m. EST. "Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement. Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!"
The White House and British officials declined to comment on the president's post on Wednesday night, but both nations have discussed lowering British tariffs on U.S. cars and farm goods, in addition to lifting British taxes on U.S. technology companies.
It's not clear why Trump characterized the U.S.-British relationship as an "allegiance," which refers to loyalty and support for a ruler, country, group or belief, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, rather than an "alliance," which is defined by the same dictionary as a group of countries, political parties or people who have agreed to work together because of shared interests or aims.
International trade attorney Timothy C. Brightbill cautioned the New York Times not to expect much from the announcement, which he predicted would probably be “just an agreement to start the negotiations, identifying a framework of issues to be discussed in the coming months.”
“We suspect that tariff rates, nontariff barriers and digital trade are all on the list — and there are difficult issues to address on all of these,” added Brightbill, an international trade attorney at Wiley Rein.