Trump Is Already Flipping on His Brand New Tariff Deadline
Donald Trump set a new tariff deadline of August 1—except not really, apparently.

Donald Trump said he may fold on his new deadline for tariff negotiations … again.
While sitting across the dinner table from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday evening, Trump was asked by a reporter whether the copy-paste “tariff letters” announcing the tariff rates for various countries were “final offers” or whether they were negotiable.
“More or less final offers,” Trump said. “We’re always subject to negotiate something that’s fair.”
“I would say the final—but if they call with a different offer and if I like it, we’ll do it,” he explained.
“Is the August 1 deadline firm now? Is that it?” the reporter pressed.
“No, I would say firm, but not a hundred percent firm,” Trump replied. “If they call up and say we’d like to do something a different way, we’re gonna be open to that. But essentially, that’s the way it is right now.”
Trump never seemed all that interested in committing to August 1. He dodged a question Sunday about extending the deadline, forcing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to step in and set one. The United States sent out a total of 14 letters Monday, announcing a tariff rate as high as 40 percent on Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, and Myanmar. The stock market saw nearly one-percentage-point drops in the face of uncertainty.
In the Trump administration, it seems that a deal is not a deal, it’s a threatening letter, the terms of which are completely subject to change. Meanwhile, a deadline isn’t even a deadline, but an endless cycle of, in this case, nonexistent negotiations.