As Donald Trump‘s tariff deadline approaches, administration insiders are admitting that the showman president was playing to the cameras.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that the July 9 deadline for U.S. trading partners to ink an agreement or face steep import tariffs had been extended to August. Bessent stressed to CNN‘s “State of the Union” that pushing back the drop-dead date was “not a new deadline,” before explaining how it is a deadline.
“We are saying this is when it’s happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice,” Bessent said.
The treasury secretary went on to admit that “many of these countries never even contacted us,” a statement in direct opposition to the always looming trade deals promised by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over the last several months.
An anonymous Trump insider who spoke to Politico said the entire tariff conversation was a farce and that Trump would push back the deadline as many times as he needed to to save face.
“Trump knows the most interesting part of his presidency is the tariff conversation,” they shared. “I find it hard to believe he’s going to surrender it that easily. It’s all fake. There’s no deadline. It’s a self-imposed landmark in this theatrical show, and that’s where we are.”
Watch Bessent’s interview below: