‘Deal or no deal?’ Critics pounce as Trump breaks with own aide immediately after TV spot
While the White House’s top economic advisers have continued to insist that the administration’s massive new set of tariffs are non-negotiable, President Donald Trump’s new contradicting comments made clear he’s not on the same page with his team.
"The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have,” Trump told reporters Thursday aboard Air Force One a day after his Rose Garden “Liberation Day” tariff announcement sunk the market to its lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the remarks suggest the president may have cold feet. “This is not a negotiation,” Trump adviser Peter Navarro said moments earlier in a CNN interview.
Navarro’s remarks followed U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying: “I don’t think there’s any chance Trump is going to back off his tariff.”
The shifting positions didn't go unnoticed by political observers across social media, who pointed out the inconsistent messaging coming out of the Trump White House.
“One big q out of today: Deal or no deal?” Politico reporter Megan Messerly posted on X. “WH has been adamant tariffs are 'not a negotiation,' a point Lutnick and Navarro reiterated... and then Trump went and told reporters that he's open to deals so long as they 'are giving us something that is good.'"
ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs
“One of the reason[s] the market is annoyed today is because 3 different White House officials explicitly said today that the tariffs are not up for negotiation,” YouTube personality Amit Kukreja told his followers on X. “Now Trump says they are. Just more and more uncertainty that the market has no idea how to price in.”
“What's the point of negotiating with someone who already violated a bunch of trade agreements to impose tariffs?” Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, wrote on Bluesky. “They ALREADY negotiated. And then Trump just decided that didn't mean anything.”
Navarro: "Trump is going to stay tough…no negotiation on tariffs *one hour later* Trump: tariffs are negotiable.” X user David Dennison wrote.
Policy analyst James Medlock posted on Bluesky that the president’s defenders say, “Trump is just pretending to be crazy to get a good negotiating stance. Trump: This is not about negotiating. Defenders: Trump is just saying he's not negotiating, to get an even better negotiating stance.”