President Trump on Monday said he’s not considering a pause on tariffs, following an unconfirmed report earlier in the day that he was considering a 90-day pause, which caused the stock market to jump.
“We’re not looking at that,” Trump said when asked if he’s open to a pause.
“We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us and they’re going to be fair deals and in certain cases, they’re going to be paying substantial tariffs. They’ll be fair deals,” the president said during a pool spray in the Oval Office alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump last year, argued on Sunday that Trump should consider calling a “90-day time out” that would allow him to negotiate and solve “asymmetric tariff deals, and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country.”
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, was then asked before markets opened on Monday if Trump would consider a pause, telling Fox News, “I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide.”
A user on the social platform X, Walter Bloomberg, reported an incorrect interpretation of the Hassett interview, and CNBC aired a banner containing the unconfirmed information. The post caused major moves on the stock market, with a surge followed by a plunge within seconds.
The White House said at the time that the report was “fake news.”
Trump also said in the Oval Office that he spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, citing Japan as an example of a country that has come to the table to negotiate.
“They’re coming and I said one thing, you’re going to have to open up your country because we sold no cars, like zero cars, in Japan and they sold millions of cars into our country,” Trump said.
Trump was also asked about the mixed messaging from the White House on negotiations, with top adviser Peter Navarro saying in a Financial Times opinion piece on Monday the tariffs are “not a negotiation.”
“They can both be true. There can be permanent tariffs and there can also be negotiations,” Trump said.
And, the president doubled down on his threat to impose an additional 50 percent tariff on China. After he announced the U.S. would impose a 34 percent tariff on Chinese imports as part of “reciprocal” tariffs against dozens of countries, China responded by announcing a 34 percent tariff on American imports, leading to Trump’s warning on Monday.
