President Donald Trump boasted Tuesday night that world leaders panicked by his gargantuan global tariffs are “kissing my a–” in desperate bids to reduce the levies.
“These countries are calling us up, kissing my a**” to negotiate deals on his tariffs, which he called “legendary,” Trump said during a speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner in Washington, D.C. “They are,” he emphasized. “They are dying to make a deal.”
He mocked the tariff-deal supplicants, pretending to be them as he pitifully pleaded in a simpering voice: “Please, Sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, Sir.”
Trump also bragged that he had the “most successful 100 days in the history of this country,” apparently forgetting the rattling plunges in global stock markets after he announced his tariffs, angry Republican town hall mettings, and a major national protest against his administration just days earlier.
For many leaders, the White House hasn’t bothered to respond to their phone calls to even schedule talks, Politico reported Tuesday. In addition, Trump officials haven’t yet even indicated what specific concessions they’re seeking.
None of Trump’s top officials “have a mandate to negotiate,” one foreign diplomat who requested anonymity told Politico.
“I’m not sure … how receptive” the administration is to “ meet with counterparts. Many of us have already written to them asking for meetings,” said an official from the Philippines. “We are all waiting for the reply,” he added, referring to representatives of several Southeast Asian countries.
It’s unclear where the Trump administration stands on the tariffs, whose cost will be largely paid by American consumers in the form of higher prices for foreign goods. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CBS News Tuesday that the tariffs are “negotiable but not a negotiating tactic.”
Trump said Monday that there could be both “permanent tariffs and there could also be negotiations.”
The tariffs went into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET Wednesday. They included a monstrous 104 percent levy on goods from China, which has vowed to fight America “to the end” in a trade war.
