Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent squirmed in his seat when he was pressed on President Donald Trump’s faltering trade deal negotiations on Fox News.
In early April, Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro said the Trump administration was primed to strike 90 deals in 90 days with trade partners.
Trump and his economic advisers had envisaged countries queuing up to hash out terms to soften the president’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, after a 90-day pause was imposed on the super-charged levies.
However, 41 days after Navarro‘s boast on NBC’s Meet the Press and just 47 days until the pause is lifted, only the United Kingdom and China have put pen to paper. Asked on America’s Newsroom on Friday morning where the next deal is going to come from, Bessent responded vaguely and pointed the finger of blame.
He told host Bill Hemmer that the European Union is at fault for not negotiating honestly.
“As I mentioned before, we’re far along with India and they got in early on. Many of the Asian countries have come with very good deals. So there are 18 important trading partners. With the exception of the E.U., most are negotiating in good faith,” he said.
He began to squirm when Hemmer asked him which deal would come first. “Uhm, Bill, we’re going to have to see,” he said.
But the Fox News host pressed on. “Is it a summer battle? Do we take this into the fall?” he asked. “And if we take it into the fall, are we talking about 2026 to do a deal that you can announce publicly.”
“With the E.U.?” Bessent sheepishly asked. “With the E.U., anybody, you pick!” Hemmer responded, firmly.
Bessent answered: “These deals are moving quickly. I think as we approach the end of the 90-day period we’re going to see more of them announced.”
“Is that July then?” Hemmer asked, with Bessent saying: “I think that’s the 90 days.”
“We’ll look for that then,” Hemmer concluded.
At the top of the segment, Bessent made his first reference to “good faith,” or lack of, from the E.U. He said talks with European officials at the G7 in Canada went “fine,” but actual proposals put forward from European nations have been lacking.
Slamming the E.U.’s “pace,” Bessent said: “The problem is the lead-up to that, the 90-day pause on the April 2nd tariffs was based on countries or trade blocks coming to us and negotiating in good faith. I believe, the president believes, that the E.U. proposals have not been of the same quality that we’ve seen from our other trading partners.”
Around an hour before Bessent’s appearance on America’s Newsroom, Trump reignited his scorched-earth trade war, taking aim at the E.U. and tech company Apple.
Trump warned that Apple would face a 25 percent tariff unless it moves iPhone production to the U.S. He also said he is “recommending” a 50 percent tariff on the European Union starting June 1.
The EU “has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere!”
Predictably, Dow Futures plunged by around 400 points in early trading.
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