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Donald Trump hit back at suggestions that his international tariff deals were taking time to materialize, telling moderators at a televised town hall to mark his first 100 days back in office: “I’m in less of a hurry than you.”
The president, who joined the NewsNation event on Wednesday night via phone, appeared to row back on claims he had already made agreements with hundreds of countries, downgrading them to just a handful of “potential deals.”
But he also insisted that over 100 countries had been calling his administration “morning, noon and night – dying to make a deal.”
Responding to a question from TV personality and sports pundit Stephen A Smith on the effects of the tariffs on lower income families, Trump replied: “I know what I’m doing perfectly.”
It's “time for the American people to be properly protected by somebody that knows what he's doing, and I know what I'm doing perfectly,” he said. “It's a little complicated subject. I've got to explain it. I've got to have people that can explain it.”
He added: “I can tell you that right now we have over 100 countries that are calling us, like morning, noon and night, dying to make a deal. We're in a great position of strength. We'll make great deals, and where we don't make deals.”
But he suddenly characterized the expected pace of tariff deals as far slower than he originally promised.
In a recent interview with Time, magazine, Trump boasted that he had already struck “200 deals” with countries over tariffs. When he was asked again about the number of deals, he responded: “100 percent” – though he refused to name any specific nations.
Back at the town hall, author and journalist Bill O’Reilly asked Trump about reports that he had already made deals with South Korea, Japan, and India. He asked when the deals might be announced.
“Well, we have potential deals with that,” Trump clarified. “But I'll tell you this, I'm in less of a hurry than you are. We are sitting on the catbird seat. They want us. We don't need them.”
The president agreed, when questioned by O'Reilly, that if chaos caused by his tariffs had not stabilized by this time next year, Democrats may win the midterms.
“There is risk here. Big risk,” O’Reilly said.
“That's true. It is true. And I just think that I'll be able to convince people how good this is,” Trump replied.
“This is what other countries have done to us. We've been the laughing stock and the whipping post, we've been ripped off by every country, practically in the world,” he emphasized, equating purchasing more good from foreign countries than selling to them as being “ripped off.”
He remained bullish when asked by an audience member what his biggest mistake had been in his first 100 days back in office.
“I’ll tell you, that's the toughest question I can have, because I don't really believe I’ve made any mistakes,” he said.
English (US) ·