Trump says he settled on ‘Liberation Day’ tariff plan, but doesn’t reveal it

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—President Trump said that he had settled on a plan for his latest batch of tariffs expected this week but didn’t reveal what he had decided, after his economic team struggled to coalesce around a remade U.S. trade strategy.

“I’ve settled, yeah," Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday evening when asked whether he has decided on his “Liberation Day" plans, a term the president has used for tariffs to be announced by the self-imposed deadline of Wednesday. Trump’s team has pitched him on several ideas of how to tariff other countries, including a 20% global tariff on virtually all imports. Throughout Monday, some of his aides were under the impression that he hadn’t committed to a particular path, according to people familiar with the matter.

The people stressed that conversations remain fluid, and Trump’s comments that he had decided on an approach caught some White House advisers off guard. The debate behind closed doors highlighted the conflicting priorities of the president. The biggest one: He wants to both raise revenue with tariffs and use them as leverage to get other nations to lower their own duties, or make other policy changes.

But if tariffs are subject to negotiation, and could be lowered over time, that would raise doubts about how much revenue could ultimately be expected from their imposition. And while his team doesn’t want to seem as though they are backing down from Trump’s campaign promises, some aides are concerned about the effect tariffs could have on prices. All eyes will be on what Trump has decided: whether to apply a universal tariff, of up to 20% on all imports, to virtually all U.S.