The top White House economic adviser said Sunday that President Trump is threatening to slap tariffs on some of the nation’s biggest allies because he is not happy with the direction of ongoing trade talks.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said Mr. Trump is using the threat of enacting a 30% tariff on Aug. 1 to pressure countries to make more concessions and agree to more U.S.-friendly deals.
“The bottom line is he has seen some sketches of deals that have been negotiated with [Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick and the rest of the trade team, and the president thinks the deals need to be better and basically to put a line in the sand he sent a letter out to these folks,” Mr. Hassett said on ABC’s “This Week.”
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Mr. Trump said he was issuing letters to Mexico and