U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday met at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first leader to visit the White House since Trump announced higher-than-expected tariffs targeting global trading partners last week.
The meeting came hours after a report claimed the White House was preparing to pause the new tariffs for 90 days, a move that briefly sent stocks higher before a spokesperson dismissed the story as “fake news.”
A few hours later, and speaking with reporters, Trump said the U.S. is “not looking into” pausing the tariffs.
Trump also escalated his criticism of the European Union, accusing the bloc of unfair trade practices.
“The European Union has been very bad to us. They don’t take our cars, like Japan in that sense. They don’t take our agricultural product… Yet, they send millions of cars in a year… Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, BMWs… They’re sending millions and millions of cars to the US,” Trump stated.
“But we don’t have a car that has been sold in the European Union,” Trump said. “It’s not going to be that way. It’s gonna be fair, reciprocal. It’s gonna be fair, [currently] it’s not fair,” the US president added.
Under Trump’s new trade policy, the EU faces 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum, and autos, with broader 20% tariffs on most other goods starting Wednesday.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, speaking at Italy’s right-wing Lega party event in Florence over the weekend, weighed in on U.S.-EU trade, voicing support for a zero-tariff regime.
“I’m hopeful, for example, with the tariffs that at the end of the day, I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said.
Asked about China and whether the tariffs are permanent or part of a broader negotiating strategy, Trump suggested both were true.
A few hours earlier, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that if China does not withdraw its 34% tariffs, the U.S. will impose another 50% duty taking the total to 104%.
“Well, they can both be true. There can be permanent tariffs, and there can also be negotiations because there are things that we need beyond tariffs. We need open borders,” Trump said.
“You know, we almost had a deal with China where we’re going to open up China,” he added. “It was almost done. Some of you remember it during my first term. And it was very disappointing. We ended up making a great deal. Fifty billion dollars’ worth of product was sold. Fifty billion.”
“And I made that deal, but it wasn’t the deal that I wanted. It was—the deal that I wanted was that, plus they were going to open up China so that our companies could go into China and compete with other countries and China for the, you know, for a large number of people.”
“And at the very end, that deal was terminated, and we went to a piece of the deal. And so there are a lot of things outside of tariffs, but tariffs are very important. But there are a lot of things like opening up countries that were totally closed.”
Trump continued: “China is essentially a closed country. In fact, it is a closed country. And what they do is they charge tariffs so that if you sell cars or if you sell anything, nobody is going to buy it because the price is out of control.”
“But that’s true with a lot of other countries also. So we’re going to get fair deals and good deals with every country. And if we don’t, we’re going to have nothing to do with them. They’re not going to be allowed to participate in the United States.”
Answering a separate question, Trump defended the administration’s strategy, claiming it had triggered more trade talks.
“Virtually every country wants to negotiate,” he said. “If I didn’t do what I did over the last couple of weeks, you wouldn’t have anybody who wants to negotiate… Now, they’re offering things to us that we would’ve never even thought of asking them for…”
China’s Reaction
China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) called last Friday the action a “a typical act of unilateral bullying”, announcing a 34% duty on U.S. goods.
The ministry also placed 11 U.S. companies on its “unreliable entities list”, banning them from doing business in China or working with Chinese firms. It also introduced export restrictions on certain rare earth elements vital to sectors like electric vehicles and defense technology.
Later on Friday, China has also filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the United States’ “reciprocal tariffs”, with the MOFCOM stating that these violate WTO rules, as well as harming the legitimate rights of the organization’s members.
