Ace Breaking News – Trump rekindles trade war, with Aug. 01deadline

President Trump told Japan, South Korea and 12 other nations on Monday they face tariffs of at least 25 percent starting next month unless they soon conclude new trade deals with the United States.

The newest tariff lineup, communicated by the administration through letters and posted on social media, revived Trump’s efforts to notch agreements with trading partners, which have been slow to emerge. The new tariffs essentially replace the steep “Liberation Day” duties Trump announced in the Rose Garden three months ago.

The president postponed his announced April levies for 90 days until Wednesday and this week extended the trigger again to Aug. 1, hoping to nail down more U.S. agreements with individual countries. He indicated later on Monday there may be some wiggle room from that new deadline.

The president told reporters his announced tariffs are final, but, “If they call up and they say ‘we’d like to do something a different way,’ we’re going to be open to that. But essentially that’s the way it is right now.” 

Trump called his latest tariff announcement “firm, but not 100 per cent firm.”😅

He argues that “reciprocal” tariffs are producing billions in new revenues for the U.S., and at the same time pressure countries to sign trade deals that he says can add “rocket fuel” to U.S. growth.

Financial markets went into a swan dive over Trump’s trade war in the spring and his policies injected uncertainty into business and consumer decisions, which economists say has slowed U.S. growth. The president asserts that tariffs cost Americans “nothing,” including levies on China. Most economists disagree.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who has been publicly hammered by the president, has explained the tariff moves have weighed on the central bank’s decision-making about when to cut its benchmark interest rates.

“We do expect … tariff inflation to show up more,” Powell told the House Financial Services Committee last month. “But I want to be honest, we really don’t know how much of that’s going to be passed through to the consumers. We just don’t know. And we won’t know until we see it. It could be lower than we expect; it could be higher.”

Trump and Cabinet officials continue to express confidence that trade pacts are nearing the finish line and will show up in U.S. economic expansion. The administration previously announced deals with the United Kingdom, China and Vietnam.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently said they anticipate about 12 trade deals.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Trump pushes a global trade war back to the top of his agenda.

▪ Time: Here’s where major countries stood with the U.S. before Trump shifted Wednesday’s tariff deadline to Aug. 1 using an executive order.

Bessent, who regularly fields questions from skeptics on Wall Street, in C suites and abroad, told CNBC on Monday that Trump is focused on “the quality of the deals, not the quantity.” The president’s transactional approach, he suggested, is effective.

“We’ve had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations,” the secretary added.

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