US Politics
Trump promises there will be ‘no change’ to his August 1 tariffs start – despite previous delays in the timetable
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President Donald Trump is digging in on his most recent threat to force Americans to pay exorbitant tariffs on imports in an attempt to reverse decades globalization and return the United States economy to one based on manufacturing rather than services.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said new rates of import taxes laid out in a series of letters to various countries’ heads of state or government “WILL START BEING PAID ON AUGUST 1, 2025.”
He added: “There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change. In other words, all money will be due and payable starting AUGUST 1, 2025 – No extensions will be granted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The president’s doubling down on his announced tax increases comes less than a day after he started sending bizarre, poorly-written letters to American trading partners citing ‘unsustainable’ trade deficits as justification for the tariffs, which will be at rates ranging from 25 to 40 percent on any imports from Japan, South Korea, Burma, Kazakstan, Laos, Malaysia, and South Africa as well as other nations.
The president described his threatening letters as an invitation for each country, already an important ally and trading partner for America, to “participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States, the Number One Market in the World, by far.”
“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship … and have concluded that we must move away from these longterm, and very persistent, Trade Deficits engendered by … Tariff, and Non Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers. Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal,” Trump said.
Trump frequently claims tariffs are paid by foreign governments, even though they are import taxes charged by the federal government and paid by importers who often pass them along to consumers in higher prices.
The announcement of the new tax rates and the August 1 deadline came just days before what had been a July 9 deadlines for countries to enter into agreements with his administration that would avoid the outsized “liberation day” import taxes he announced in April before backing down and extending the initial deadline for imposing them after markets reacted poorly to his attempt to upend the global trading system.
Since announcing the “liberation day” tariffs in April he has routinely extended the self-imposed deadline, leading analysts to bake that tendency into their market predictions as the “TACO” trade, short for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”
The president once claimed his tariff threats would lead countries to beat a path to the White House door and negotiate as many as 90 separate trade agreements in three months, but during a media availability alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday he backed down from that promise, telling reporters he’d simply be sending out letters spelling out new tariff rates.
“We’ll make some deals. But for the most part, we’re going to send a letter. We’re going to say, welcome to the United States, if you’d like to participate, the greatest, most successful country ever,” he said.
