Listen to Donald Trump talk long enough, and he'll give you an answer to a question you didn't know you had.
On Tuesday, the president disclosed what vital position he'd take up if he ever woke up inside Richard Scarry's Busytown books. (Surprisingly, it's not a dashing worm inside an apple shaped like a Mack truck.) Asked about potential trade deals and his still-looming global tariffs, Trump explained that he sees himself as the "shopkeeper" of the United States.
"I could announce 50-100 deals right now," he said, while avoiding any concrete details about new trade deals. "I'm the shopkeeper and I keep the store...I can set those terms and they can go shopping, or they don't have to."
Trump's shop talk came after weeks of the administration being deliberately vague about promised trade deals. The number of trade deals that are in the process of being struck, the countries that are party to them and the progress of those talks has changed from day to day and Trump official to Trump official.
Trump compared the U.S. to a "beautiful store" like the ones operated by LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods company.
"[They have] the greatest stores in the world. They want to shop. Our country is the greatest store in the world, of that kind," he said. "Everybody wants a piece of it."
Trump's comments came after the U.S. failed to reach a trade deal with Canada during a meeting with that country's new prime minister, Mark Carney, earlier in the day. The president grew frustrated with questions about possible deals, saying that he's in no rush to circumvent tariffs on imports from our biggest trade partners.
"We don’t have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us," he said. "They want our market. We don’t want a piece of their market. We don’t care about their market."
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