Bessent’s Mar-a-Lago tariff message to Trump: zero in on the endgame

As President Donald Trump’s new tariffs shook global markets and sent foreign leaders scrambling this weekend, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent flew to Mar-a-Lago with a message.

As President Donald Trump’s new tariffs shook global markets and sent foreign leaders scrambling this weekend, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent flew to Mar-a-Lago with a message. It was imperative to get the administration’s tariff communications aligned, Bessent told Trump, and more focused on the endgame for Americans: better trade deals with foreign nations, according to people familiar with the conversation. The risk in not doing so would be further market turmoil, Bessent conveyed. The meeting was an example of the conflicting narratives swirling around Trump — with some corners pushing an effort to make deals and calm the markets. But five days after his splashy Rose Garden tariff announcement, foreign leaders and US investors alike are all still looking for clues of how willing the president is to negotiate down the duties. And as those outside observers pore over interviews and remarks from Trump’s constellation of economic advisers, it has not been clear what it will take to end the global trade war. Delegations from US trading partners large and small were preparing to seek out American officials or plan trips to Washington to try and ascertain exactly how to remove the new duties. Offers were already coming in from some of the world’s largest trading blocs. The European Union, for example, offered to drop tariffs to zero on automobiles and industrial goods. In all, 70 countries had approached the US administration to discuss trade issues in the wake of the new tariffs, administration officials said late Monday.