Key events
It’s been 90 days since Donald Trump’s “original tariff bonanza”, notes Politico, and today – 9 July – was supposed to mark “the deadline by which time 90-or-so new trade deals were to be agreed; or else punishing new tariffs would kick in.” But after much confusion and flip-flopping yesterday, that deadline has been pushed back once more, this time to 1 August, giving the administration more time to get deals done.
But “a deal” can mean many things, Politico highlights. “The trade framework with the UK was a ‘deal’. The vague handshake with Vietnam last week was a ‘deal’. The detente with China was a ‘deal’. ‘A letter means a deal,’ Trump said, helpfully, during his Cabinet meeting yesterday. ‘The deals are mostly my deal to them.’” So it will be interesting to see where on this spectrum the nature of trading terms Trump is going to unveil today will fall.
More trade announcements expected as Trump defends tariffs
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics today.
Donald Trump said there would be more trade-related announcements this morning after defending his tariffs on Truth Social.
In a post on Tuesday evening, the president said:
We will be releasing a minimum of 7 Countries having to do with trade, tomorrow morning, with an additional number of Countries being released in the afternoon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
That post came shortly after he wrote that “Tariffs have had ZERO IMPACT on Inflation” and – yet again – called for Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates.
On Tuesday, Trump vowed to escalate his trade wars, my colleague Callum Jones reported, threatening US tariffs of up to 200% on foreign drugs and 50% on copper amid widespread confusion around his shifting plans.
An example of Trump’s shifting plans: shortly after saying his latest deadline for a new tariffs was “not 100% firm” yesterday, he declared “no extensions will be granted” beyond 1 August.
Stick with us today as we bring you the latest lines on the Trump administration, tariffs, and everything else in US politics.
