Trump’s Tariff Letters to World Leaders Are Copy and Pasted

President Donald Trump is spamming world leaders with letters threatening huge tariff hikes in the event that they don’t strike commerce offers with Washington because the U.S. blows previous its personal 90-day deadline for offers with 90 nations. Because the letters multiply, it seems they’re partially copied and pasted.

Screenshots of the most recent batch of letters had been posted on Trump’s Reality Social account on Wednesday, revealing that the administration is utilizing the identical template for every nation however adjusting the respective nation names and tariff charges. “It’s a Nice Honor for me to ship you this letter,” every one begins, earlier than lamenting that regardless of having “had years to debate our Buying and selling Relationship,” the connection has remained “sadly, removed from Reciprocal.” (One despatched to Brazil broke the sample to begin off with a rant about former president Jair Bolsonaro.)

Signed by Trump, the most recent letters goal largely minor buying and selling companions — the Philippines, Moldova, Brunei, Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Sri Lanka — whereas sparing the main ones. The Philippines, the highest-level commerce accomplice on the listing, was solely ranked thirtieth by way of worth in 2024. Larger buying and selling companions, together with South Korea and Japan, had been hit with similar letters on Monday, bringing the whole quantity despatched out this week to 21.

The flurry of threats coincides with the top of the 90-day deadline Trump first set for his commerce blitz in April, which got here and went on Wednesday with solely a handful of the 90 offers predicted by the White Home. As of Wednesday afternoon, the one offers signed had been with Vietnam and the UK.

The letters despatched this week counsel some nations that didn’t take the bait when Trump first despatched them his calls for now face the specter of even larger tariffs. The Philippines, as an illustration, was initially warned of a 17 p.c tax on imports to the U.S. again in April, although Trump’s renewed risk on Wednesday bumped the determine as much as 20 p.c. It’s not clear what factored into the revised figures.

Requested on Wednesday if he’d used any particular “method” for the tariffs, Trump instructed a reporter he had used solely a “widespread sense” method. White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt instructed reporters Trump had created “tailored commerce plans for every nation on this planet.”

Whereas Wednesday marked the unique deadline for different nations to make offers with the U.S., Trump signed an government order earlier this week pushing it again to August 1. Maybe nonetheless stinging a bit from the TACO moniker, for “Trump All the time Chickens Out,” popularized by his earlier on-again, off-again tariff deadlines, he went on to insist “no extensions can be granted.”