President Donald Trump is teasing scores of trade deals incoming, as the 90-day pause on his higher reciprocal tariff rates continues and no deals have been announced.
Trump unveiled his sweeping tariff policy this month, with 10% baseline tariff rates across the board, and additional rates on nearly 60 countries. A week after he unveiled the tariffs, he put a 90-day pause on the higher rates for all countries, except China, as negotiations continued. While the White House has yet to unveil any deals, they have teased talks with dozens of countries on trade.
The president said he has “made 200 deals” and will announce them “over the next three to four weeks,” in an interview with TIME released on Friday. He did not specify which countries the deals were with, but likened the U.S. to a “department store” in his strategy and claimed that “everybody took advantage of us.”
He’d previously said 75 deals were on the table, so it’s unknown which countries these additional deals are with.
“Now, some countries may come back and ask for an adjustment, and I’ll consider that, but I’ll basically be, with great knowledge, setting—ready? We’re a department store, a giant department store, the biggest department store in history. Everybody wants to come in and take from us. They’re going to come in and they’re going to pay a price for taking our treasure, for taking our jobs, for doing all of these things,” Trump said.
“But what I’m doing with the tariffs is people are coming in, and they’re building at levels you’ve never seen before. We have $7 trillion of new plants, factories and other things, investment coming into the United States. And if you look back at past presidents, nobody was anywhere near that. And this is in three months,” he added.
Trump was also asked about the deportation of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the Supreme Court order which said the U.S. government should “facilitate” his return and continue with his deportation case, “as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
The president said he has not asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to release Abrego Garcia, but did say Bukele made clear he would not be releasing the alleged MS-13 gang member. He said he would leave decisions on Abrego Garcia to his lawyers, when asked why he had asked for the Salvadoran national’s release.
PRESSURE BUILDS ON TRUMP THE DEAL-MAKER TO DELIVER
“Well, because I haven’t been asked to ask him by my attorneys. Nobody asked me to ask him that question, except you,” Trump said.
The interview comes as Trump nears his first 100 days in office for his second term, traditionally a key milestone for a presidency.