Investing.com-- U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Tuesday evening interview with Newsmax that he was seeking limited exceptions in his plans to impose more trade tariffs, as his April 2 deadline for reciprocal tariffs approaches.
Trump also said that he was “very comfortable” with a seeming resolution to what appeared to be a serious security breach at the White House, where a magazine editor was added to a group chat of high-level officials on messaging app Signal.
On tariffs, Trump told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly that he did not “want to have too many exceptions” on his upcoming April 2 tariffs.
“I’ll probably be more lenient than reciprocal, because if I was reciprocal, that would be very tough for people,” Trump said.
The 47th President is set to impose tariffs against the U.S.’ biggest trading partners on April 2, with the goal of fixing what he sees as major trade imbalances against the country.
Recent reports showed Trump’s reciprocal measures will be aimed at about 15 countries. Trump is also expected to impose tariffs on automobiles, key commodities, and semiconductors in the coming days, although it was unclear whether these will also come on April 2.
Fears of Trump’s tariffs and their impact had battered global markets over the past month, although the rout appeared to be somewhat clearing this week.
Trump says ‘very comfortable’ with Signal leak resolution
Trump told Newsmax that he was “very comfortable” with the explanation to how Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief at The Atlantic, ended up on a Signal group of high-level officials discussing an attack on the Houthi group in Yemen.
Goldberg appeared to be added by White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, or somebody on his team. Waltz took full responsibility for the apparent leak.
Trump claimed that the group was not classified, and that no classified information was shared. He called the strike against the Houthis, which took place earlier this month, a "tremendous success.”
Trump earlier on Tuesday gave Waltz a vote of confidence, despite increasing calls for Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s resignation.
National Intelligence Tusi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel were grilled by the Senate on the Signal leak.