White House’s impatience for trade deals grows as economic anxiety builds

By Kevin Liptak, Jeff Zeleny and Alayna Treene, CNN

(CNN) — On his 100th day in office, President Donald Trump crowed to a rally of supporters about a dawning “golden age” for the American economy, made possible by his new tariffs.

On his 101st, he warned in a different setting that children may have to shrink their toy chests as the tariffs raise the price of dolls from China.

For Trump, an uncertain economy and a long-term plan to restore US manufacturing come with a messaging challenge: how to explain to Americans who elected him on a promise to lower prices that, in fact, it is higher prices they should prepare for in the immediate future.

Trump’s solution so far has been to embrace the good and mostly blame the bad — including a negative gross domestic product report Wednesday — on his predecessor Joe Biden, whose name was uttered 51 times in Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.

And as he did this week, Trump has shifted his message based on who’s listening. His rally north of Detroit on Tuesday made little mention of “transition period” pain that could result from the tariffs. A day later, however, he said frankly that Americans may need to adjust their consumption and spending habits.

“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves, they’re going to be open,’” he said. “Well maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”

It was the starkest example yet of Trump warning that disruptions could be coming as a consequence of his trade war. He has argued the end result is worth it.

Behind the scenes, officials describe intense pressure to produce deals or announcements — and in particular, new trade agreements — that could provide long-awaited good news on the economy, sources familiar with the talks told CNN.

While the president is not growing uneasy about his long-held belief in tariffs as a way to revive the American economy, advisers said he is increasingly growing impatient about the need for the US to reach a deal with some countries on trade in the coming days.

Top officials, including the president himself along with top economic advisers like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, have publicly described on television being close to striking new trade deals.

The most imminent appears to be with India. Trump, Bessent and Lutnick, in addition to other Trump administration officials, have repeatedly touted in recent days that they are close to finalizing a deal with New Delhi.

Officials representing Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been in Washington for intensive talks over the past weeks. They have come armed with a number of offers and concessions, eager to be the first country to strike a trade agreement that would result in an easing of the 26% reciprocal tariff Trump has threatened.

“That messaging is strategic,” one person close to the talks said, adding that the president’s advisers acknowledge they are “not where they need to be” when it comes to messaging on the economy.

Some Republicans also hope swift work on trade agreements can help Trump regain some initiative on economic messaging. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, acknowledged Wednesday’s GDP report was a worrying sign.

“You can’t look at this today and recognize it for anything other than being unacceptable,” he said, saying he expected to start seeing impacts from tariffs “at a retail level” that will impact consumer prices “in the coming weeks.”

“There’s a lot of reasons why I think President Trump’s right to hold them accountable, but we’re going to have, we’re going to have headwinds and inflationary headwinds as well,” he said.

The president’s comments in the Cabinet Room were a rare acknowledgment that a lingering trade war with China could be felt directly by Americans. He used dolls as an example – seemingly to minimize the hardship or economic pain – even as myriad other goods that consumers and businesses rely upon are also likely to be missing from store shelves.

The prospect of a disruption in the supply chain is a critical source of anxiety for business executives, who have been conveying concerns to the White House for weeks about the fallout from the Trump tariffs and ensuing trade war.

However, senior White House officials continue to insist they are optimistic that once deals with other countries are announced, the economic tide will begin to turn.

There has also been a direct emphasis in recent days on Trump’s tax plan, including making his 2017 tax cuts permanent. Bessent told reporters this week he wants a tax package to be finalized by early July. It is widely believed within Trump’s orbit that more movement on the president’s tax plan will provide a needed boost to the economic climate, the sources said.

“We continue to view this as a mid- to long-term plan,” one of the senior White House officials told CNN about their economic strategy, adding that breaking the global economic order to create “more fair” trade practices for the US was “never going to happen overnight.”

Despite that line of messaging, quiet anxiety over the economy’s current state is building, with many of the people involved in crafting Trump’s plan aware they need to make substantial progress quickly to give the public more reason to, as Trump himself put it on Wednesday, “be patient.”

While the first 100 days of his second term are now behind him, Trump is sending the message that he needs more time for his economic policies to take hold, a period of transition to implement his tariffs, his tax agenda and more. Yet that was not something Trump mentioned on the campaign trail, when he pledged to offer an economic lifeline to Americans.

“We’re going to bring prices down,” Trump said in the days leading up to the election. “We can rescue our economy from total obliteration and restore our country to full prosperity explosive growth and maximum strength.”

Now, like then, Trump’s penchant to blame Biden comes naturally. He’s a forever foil that Trump’s advisers are also quick to reference in hopes of pleasing the president.

“This is Biden’s economy,” Trump told a gathering of CEOs at the White House on Wednesday afternoon. “I think you have to give us a little bit of time to get moving, but this is still the Biden economy.”

Even some of Trump’s supporters aren’t buying that explanation.

“What’s that old expression? Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining? Well that applies here,” wrote Dave Portnoy, a Trump supporter and founder of Barstool Sports, on X. “The stock market is a direct reflection of Trumps 1st 100 days in office. Doesn’t mean it won’t get better and that we don’t need to be patient, but this is his market not Bidens.”

Still, one Cabinet member after another on Wednesday sought to blame Biden, a message that seemed to sit well with Trump, who sat at the center of the table and often smiled as he listened.

“The Biden administration put us in a real predicament right now, the whole trade team, the whole Cabinet,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said.

“We had a meltdown under Biden,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.

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