White House keeps world guessing as clock ticks down to Trump's new tariffs

WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than one hour before the stock market closed on Monday, journalists gathered in the Oval Office for their only chance of the day to ask President Donald Trump about the turmoil caused by his tariff plans.

Are the new tariffs, scheduled to take effect on Wednesday, a bargaining chip to reach better trade deals? Or are they etched in stone in a mission to revamp the global economy?

Investors around the world were hanging on Trump's every word, but he did little to clear up the situation.

“It can both be true,” he said. “There can be permanent tariffs, and there can also be negotiations.”

The markets skidded to a close. At a time when foreign leaders and business executives are desperate for clarity, the White House is sending mixed messages as it pursues conflicting goals.

Advisers have tried with some success to tamp down a days-long stock selloff by talking up tariffs as a starting point for negotiations, which could mollify Wall Street and jittery Republicans in Congress. But the president continues to insist that he can raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue with his new taxes on foreign imports, and he's shown no willingness to back down from an agenda that he's advocated for decades, even before entering politics.

The ongoing paradox could erode confidence in Trump’s leadership at home and abroad after he promised a booming economy and tax cuts, not depleted retirement accounts and fears of a recession. For now, as the tariffs are set to kick in, there's no clear resolution for what could be the most significant overhaul of international trade in a generation.

When reporters asked Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, whether he understood the White House's plan, he responded with a question of his own — "Does anybody?”

As a result, the U.S. stock market has been extremely volatile. The S&P 500 stock index initially posted gains on Tuesday morning on the possibility of negotiations, only to close down 1.57% as the White House said that the combined tariffs on China would be 104% starting on Wednesday.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, urged the White House to “settle the situation.”

He said the “perception as to whether or not there’s an end game is very important.” Tillis said he is “giving the administration the benefit of the doubt” for now. But he added that "you’ve got to get it done as quickly as you can get it done.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Trump was causing economic chaos with the back-and-forth over tariffs.

“Who makes long term investments based on that?” she said. "Who hires people and trains workers based on the hope that Donald Trump will not change his mind again and again and again?”

Trump claimed on Tuesday that “America’s going to be very rich again very soon” and said his team was negotiating with other countries.

“I call them tailored deals," he said. "Not off the rack. Highly tailored deals.”

The administration has yet to articulate its goals for any talks with trading partners, other than to suggest that negotiations could take several months and that nations might also need to dramatically overhaul their tax systems and regulations to satisfy Trump's demands. Canadian and European officials are unsure about how to proceed, even as Trump administration officials insist that as many as 70 nations are looking to start negotiations.

Trump insists that he wants to erase trade deficits that have developed as the U.S. buys more products from other countries than it sells. On Tuesday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social that he spoke with South Korea's acting president, Han Duck-soo, about “their tremendous and unsustainable” surplus.

“We have the confines and probability of a great DEAL for both countries,” he wrote. “Their top TEAM is on a plane heading to the U.S., and things are looking good.”

But on Monday, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would "eliminate the trade deficit with the United States," Trump appeared unmoved.

Asked if he would hold off on new tariffs on Israel, the president said, “maybe not.”

“Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” he said, citing billions of dollars in military assistance to the country.

Trump has long advocated for tariffs as the solution to economic challenges, and his insistence that other countries are ripping off the United States is one of his most consistently expressed beliefs over the years.

Last Thursday, while flying to Florida aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that “the tariffs give us great power to negotiate.”

On the flight back to Washington on Sunday, Trump described the tariffs as a necessity and said he was undeterred by the cratering stock market, adding that "sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something."

Peter Navarro, a leading trade adviser, has also taken a hard line.

“This is not a negotiation,” Navarro wrote in the Financial Times. “For the U.S., it is a national emergency triggered by trade deficits caused by a rigged system.”

But other officials like Kevin Hassett, the top White House economic adviser, and Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said scores of countries are lining up to negotiate with Trump over tariffs.

“It’s going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June,” Bessent told Fox News. He said Trump “gave himself maximum negotiating leverage, and just when he achieved the maximum leverage, he’s willing to start talking.”

Speaking Monday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, Stephen Miran, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the mixed messages over the purpose of the tariffs reflected a “healthy” internal debate.

“There are conflicting narratives because everybody has got an opinion," he said. "And that’s fine. Disagreement is how you can enhance your arguments and avoid groupthink, and I think that’s very healthy.”

As for whether any deals could be reached before the tariffs take effect, Miran said, “that choice will ultimately remain with the president.”

Michael Strain, an economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said Trump is pursuing incompatible goals.

“These tariffs cannot both be an instrument to reshape the global trading order, to shift the U.S. economy away from services and toward manufacturing ... and also be a tool to negotiate lower trade barriers,” he said at a panel discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Institute.

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, blamed Trump's aides for the ambiguity, saying some of them “just like to talk.”

“There’s some uncertainty about what the president’s objective is and I think that’s a product of some of his aides, who gave conflicting reports on TV this weekend,” he said.

Kennedy said he supports Trump’s trade goals. But he’s also getting calls from businesses in his state, and he’s had no answers for them on what to expect.

Bessent visited with Republican lawmakers on Friday and told them that the tariffs were a “high level mark with the ultimate goal of getting them reduced" unless other countries retaliated, according to Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming.

“The president is a dealmaker if nothing else, and he’s going to continue to deal country by country with each of them,” Barrasso said.

But China already retaliated with plans for its own 34% tariffs, prompting Trump on Monday to threaten additional 50% tariffs against the country, for a total of 104%.

The U.S. president had a positive enough conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba that the Nikkei stock index jumped 6% on Tuesday, yet it was still unclear how a deal would work.

Trump placed a 24% tariff on Japan and a separate 25% tariff on auto imports, much higher than the 1.9% average tariff rate charged by Japan, according to World Trade Organization data. Trump has called the auto tariffs “permanent” and also installed a permanent 10% baseline tariff on most countries, suggesting a limit as to how much rates could fall through negotiations.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said Americans understand Trump is trying to address trade imbalances, and he emphasized his trust in the president.

“We are going to give him the space necessary to do it,” he said Monday.

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Associated Press writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.