President Donald Trump's deadline for his "90 Deals in 90 Days" initiative was July 9, but after making only two "deals" with hours to go, Trump is pushing his target date back.
On Monday, Trump sent 14 letters to the leaders of various countries, threatening to increase U.S. tariffs on goods imported from their countries dramatically, from 20-40% for each country.
NBC News' senior White House correspondent, Garrett Haake, reported Tuesday that the president is promising there are about a dozen deals with "major economies" that he wants to negotiate on.
"It's pretty clear that that slogan from the White House has crashed headlong into the reality that negotiating trade deals, especially with some of our largest trading partners, is complex work," Haake noted.
"But for the vast majority of other nations in the world, the president seems set on setting tariff rates unilaterally by letter, using a power provided to him that's actually already bogged down in the courts," said Haake.
When reporters asked Trump Monday about missing his deadline, he claimed the team had "spoken to everybody. We know everything. It's all done. I told you. I told you. We'll make some deals. We're going to have much more than 90, but most of those are going to be sent a letter."
After moving the deadline back to Aug. 1, Trump confessed that even that date isn't firm.
"I think it's pretty clear this is going to remain a moving target," said Haake. "The president also said in that same media availability that even though he sees essentially his work as done, he's willing to continue to listen to offers. As we journalists know, a shifting deadline is no real deadline."
Over the weekend, a White House insider claimed that Trump's tariff war was for show, calling it "all fake."
See the segment below or at the link here.
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