04-08-2025 Wendy Griffith

In the face of concerns of a wider global trade war, President Trump is sticking to his tariff policy and telling Americans not to panic. Despite turmoil in the markets over the past few days, the president told reporters he won’t pause the tariffs.

“Well, we’re not looking at that. We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and they’re going to be fair deals. And in certain cases, they’re gonna be paying substantial tariffs,” Trump said.

A trade war with China looms as Trump threatened to impose an additional 50% tariff on China’s imports if they don’t remove their 34 percent retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

Economist Tim Doescher on CBN’s Faith Nation said the tariffs could mean higher prices for American consumers and said the administration needs to take additional action.

“There is a serious risk that prices, not only from tariffs, are going up on consumers, but also prices because the tax cuts are set to expire. So, there is a ton of work that has to be done as soon as possible here in order to get prices down and ensure that they don’t rise in the future,” said Doescher.

On Monday, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu met at the White House to discuss trade as well as the war in Gaza, the hostages, and the threat of Iran.

“We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States. We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do. And we’re going to also eliminate trade barriers, a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily,” Netanyahu said.

The president also made a surprise announcement saying that the administration will hold talks with the Iranians to stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons, issuing a threat if they don’t comply.

“We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Pres. Trump said. “I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger. And I hate to say it, great danger, because they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

President Trump says the administration will hold direct talks with Iran in Oman on Saturday. The Iranians, however, claim the discussions will be indirect.