President Donald Trump dug in deeper Monday over his sweeping worldwide tariffs, issuing a warning to China and sending stock markets on a roller coaster ride as he huddled with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
Long a student of American politics, Netanyahu — whose country was hit with a 17 percent duty — was the first world leader to visit Trump in Washington since he implemented higher-than-anticipated import fees on around 90 countries last week. The visit came as Democratic lawmakers continued to warn about a global recession of Trump’s making as U.S. and global stock markets took more substantial losses Monday.
Asked Monday afternoon in the Oval Office if he might pause some or all of the duties to ease global economic fears, Trump replied: “We’re not looking at that.” But he also said he was willing to talk to other world leaders about what he dubbed “fair deals.”
After dismissing concerns about the tariff fallout when questioned Sunday night on Air Force One, Trump acknowledged the severity of the situation a day later, saying: “We’re going to have one shot at this.”
As expected, Netanyahu vowed to “eliminate” the U.S.-Israel trade deficit “very quickly.” He also said he intends to remove “a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily.” Netanyahu added that he wants the Jewish state, on trade, to “serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same.”
The U.S president spent the morning firing off 15 social media posts defending the expansive tariffs and threatening the world’s other economic megapower, China, with additional fees of 50 percent on Chinese-made goods if Beijing does not drop its 34 percent retaliatory tariffs. In a social media post, he also said talks with China about the back-and-forth over tariffs would be shut down, while negotiations with other countries, including Japan, would begin “immediately.”
In another morning missive, Trump appeared to send a message to any Republican lawmaker who might be getting queasy over all the red on stock market reports: “Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!).”
Trump personally canceled a planned afternoon joint news conference with Netanyahu, according to a White House official. The duo still faced a smaller media contingent when each side’s press pool peppered them with questions in the Oval Office. Here are three takeaways.
More mixed messages
The mixed messaging from the White House continued Monday, which has left financial markets and analysts befuddled since last week’s announcement.
“There can be permanent tariffs, and there can also be negotiations, because there are things that we need beyond tariffs,” Trump said, referring to trade barriers and a lack of access to other markets. “So we’re going to get fair deals and good deals with every country. And if we don’t, we’re going to have nothing to do with them. They’re not going to be allowed to participate in the United States.”
Peter Navarro, the top White House trade adviser, contended several times earlier in the day that the administration would not negotiate.
Congressional Democrats have been hammering Trump and his top aides since he announced the duties that prompted a multiday stock selloff.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on social media Monday that “Trump and House Republicans are crashing the economy, raising your cost of living and driving us toward a recession.”
“What happened to the so-called ‘golden era’ of America?” the New York Democrat asked of Trump’s closing slogan during the 2024 campaign.
But Trump again on Monday spoke about the tariffs as part of his second-term push to drastically revamp the U.S. and global economies.
“Nobody but me would do this. It would be nice to serve a nice, easy term,” he said. “But we have an opportunity to change the fabric of our country. We have an opportunity to reset the table on trade. We lose billions of dollars.”
Trump contended that Israel would drop its tariffs on American goods and said other countries — without providing another example — were offering some surprising counterproposals.
‘Talking about results’
Netanyahu attempted to give Trump some cover after noting that the U.S. president has continued to provide military aid in his country’s war with Hamas.
“I recognize the position of the United States. It says, ‘We’re allowing other countries to put tariffs on us, but we don’t put tariffs on them,’” Netanyahu said. “And I’m a free-trade champion, and free trade has to be fair trade. And I think that’s basically the position that you have put forward, Mr. President.”
The Israeli leader said he met Sunday with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about potential tariffs relief.
“We talked about how we could affect this quickly, and I hope to bring a solution very quickly. We’re not talking about intentions. We’re not talking about just words,” he said. “We’re talking about results, and those results are going to come in.”
That drew this response from Trump: “That’s very nice. Thank you.”
Hours earlier, Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego posted a chart showing a red line depicting the Dow Jones Industrial Average taking a nosedive since Wednesday’s tariffs announcement.
“This is what happens when there’s a chaos agent in the White House,” the Senate Banking member wrote on X. “This is not what Americans voted for.”
Senate Finance Committee members Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., rolled out a bill last week aimed at reasserting Congress’ role on all things tariffs and trade. The White House has issued a veto threat.
Many GOP lawmakers, however, have continued defending Trump on tariffs. Asked Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” whether Congress should have more of an input on trade matters, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said, “I think President Trump is doing what he has every right to do.”
That’s because over the past 90 years “more and more authority [has] been given to the president to be able to be more nimble to react in terms of national security, in terms of unfair trade,” he added.
Iran talks
U.S. officials are scheduled to have talks Saturday with Iran over its nuclear program and other issues, including its support for Houthi militants in Yemen and other actions in the Middle East.
“Everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with,” Trump said, indirectly referring to a military conflict. “It’s getting to be very dangerous territory.
“We’ll see how it works out,” he said, adding the Saturday session would be “at almost the highest level” of both governments. The revelation came as he sat alongside his Israeli counterpart, who shares the U.S. goal of preventing Iran from having a nuclear arsenal.
Trump, who was willing to rattle the American saber in his first term, said that if the talks fail to yield an agreement, the Islamic republic would be in “great danger” because “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
Outside, security was tighter than usual around the White House campus. Netanyahu had arrived Sunday and stayed overnight at Blair House, a government-owned row house across Pennsylvania Avenue where world leaders often stay when visiting the White House.
Two massive orange D.C. government dump trucks blocked the security entrance onto the world-famous avenue. Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers and vehicles were deployed around its intersection with 17th Street Northwest.
By midday Monday, a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters had formed outside the tall black security gate a half block away from Blair House. “Arrest Netanyahu now,” they chanted. (The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli leader over his handling of the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.)
This report has been updated to correctly state Howard Lutnick’s Cabinet position.
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