President Donald Trump says in a wide-ranging interview published Friday that he's made "200 deals" on tariffs and that the arrangements will be "finished" in the next three to four weeks.
His comments, part of an interview with Time magazine for a cover story published Friday about the president's first 100 days in office, came after he was asked about trade adviser Peter Navarro's claim that there would be "90 deals in 90 days" made.
"Your trade adviser, Peter Navarro, says 90 deals in 90 days is possible," Time said to Trump, according to a transcript of the interview. "We're now 13 days into the point from when you lifted the reciprocal, the discounted reciprocal tariffs. There's zero deals so far. Why is that?"
"No, there's many deals," Trump said, but when he was asked when the deals would be announced, he responded that he is "dealing with all the companies, very friendly countries" and that "We're meeting with China."
"We're doing fine with everybody," he added. "But, ultimately, I've made all the deals."
But when asked when he would share the deals, the president offered a lengthy explanation:
"Because the deal is a deal that I choose," he said. "View it differently: We are a department store, and we set the price. I meet with the companies, and then I set a fair price — what I consider to be a fair price — and they can pay it, or they don't have to pay it. They don't have to do business with the United States, but I set a tariff on countries. Some have been horrible to us. Some have been OK. Nobody's been great."
The tariffs, Trump said, would be set "fairly according to the statistics."
"Do they have the VAT [value-added tax] system in play? Do they charge us tariffs? How much are they charging us? How much have they been charging us? Many, many different factors," he continued.
There will also be questions about whether the United States is funding military spending in some countries, Trump said.
"As an example, we have Korea. We pay billions of dollars for the military. Japan, billions for those and others," Trump said. "But that, I'm going to keep us a separate item, the paying of the military. [In] Germany, we have 50,000 soldiers."
But when he was asked again about announcing the deals that have been solidified. He responded that the deals would be announced "over the next three to four weeks, and we're finished, by the way … we'll be finished."
Trump acknowledged that "some countries" may "ask for an adjustment, and I'll consider that."
Trump also said that the tariffs are resulting in companies coming into the United States to build "at levels you've never seen before."
"We have $7 trillion of new plants, factories, and other things, investment coming into the United States," he said. "If you look back at past presidents, nobody was anywhere near that. And this is in three months."
Meanwhile, Trump told Time that he will not call Chinese President Xi Jinping unless Jinping calls him, but he said the Chinese leader has called him.
"He's called," said Trump. "I don't think that's a sign of weakness on his behalf."
But when asked what Jinping said, Trump responded that "we all want to make deals. But I am this giant store. It's a giant, beautiful store, and everybody wants to go shopping there. And on behalf of the American people, I own the store, and I set prices, and I'll say, if you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay."
He also denied that there is any uncertainty about the tariffs.
"The only thing — they have an option," he said. "They don't have to shop here. They can go someplace else, but there aren't too many places they can go."