synopsis

Trump also told Time Magazine that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him to strike a tariff deal, but did not specify when the call was made or what the two leaders discussed.

President Donald Trump stated that he has negotiated approximately 200 tariff agreements and plans to disclose the details over the next month. He also described the U.S. approach under his administration as akin to setting prices in a department store.

“I’ve made 200 deals,” Trump said in an interview with Time Magazine. “We're a department store, a giant department store, the biggest department store in history. Everybody wants to come in and take from us.”

Trump added that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him to strike a tariff deal, but did not specify when the call was made or what the two leaders discussed. Trump also said he would not initiate a call with Xi. 

While the exact scope of the deals remains unclear, the comments reflect a continuation of Trump’s tariff-centric economic strategy that has reshaped U.S. trade policy since his April 2 announcement of "reciprocal" tariffs. 

That framework, which allows for country-specific tariff rates based on a mix of economic and geopolitical considerations, has heightened tensions with key trade partners, including China, Germany, and Japan.

Trump said he intends to evaluate multiple factors when finalizing tariff levels, including existing value-added tax regimes, reciprocal tariff burdens, historical trade balances, and military cost-sharing arrangements. 

He cited U.S. troop deployments in South Korea, Japan, and Germany as relevant context, though he said military contributions would be addressed separately from the tariff calculus.

“So I will set a price, and when I set the price, and I will set it fairly according to the statistics, and according to everything else,” Trump said. “Are we paying for their military?... We have Korea. We pay billions of dollars for the military. Japan, billions for those and others.”

The administration has yet to publish a list of the tariff deals referenced. 

Amid the trade war uncertainty, U.S. stock futures were mixed during Friday morning trade. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) was down 0.4%, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) were up 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively.

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