July 7, 2025, 1:21 p.m. ETThe New York TimesPresident Trump announced Monday that he planned to subject imports from Japan and South Korea to new 25 percent tariffs, which would take effect Aug. 1. The president announced the actions in letters he posted to Truth Social, warning that he could increase them further, particularly if the nations retaliate.Credit...Truth SocialJuly 7, 2025, 1:07 p.m. ETAna SwansonTrade and international economics reporterA White House spokesman clarifies that the 25 percent tariff on Japanese and Korean exports includes the 10 percent “baseline” tariff that President Trump announced on all countries in April. So these tariffs are almost identical to what Trump announced in April, when he briefly imposed a 25 percent tariff on Korean products and a 24 percent tariff on Japanese goods.July 7, 2025, 1:06 p.m. ETThe value of government bonds has also fallen — a disconcerting sign for investors. Typically, the debt of the U.S. government is a haven for investors to shelter from bad news dragging markets lower, meaning the value of government bonds rise during turmoil. That isn’t happening today, which suggests a more broad based shift away from U.S. assets in light of these tariffs.July 7, 2025, 12:59 p.m. ETPresident Trump is continuing to impose or threaten tariffs on Japan’s and South Korea’s major exports, including cars, steel and electronics.Credit...Michael A. McCoy for The New York TimesPresident Trump began detailing the tariff rates he plans to impose on countries that have not reached trade agreements with the United States, telling South Korea and Japan on Monday they will face a 25 percent tax on their exports as of Aug. 1.Markets dropped on the news, as investors seemed to view the rates as punishingly high for some of America’s closest allies and largest trading partners.In nearly identical letters, Mr. Trump wrote to the president of South Korea and the prime minister of Japan that “we have decided to move forward with you, but only with more balanced, and fair, TRADE.”“We invite you to participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States, the Number One Market in the World, by far,” the president wrote.The Trump administration is expected to send more letters to governments on Monday detailing the tariff rates their exports will face as of Aug. 1. The president said earlier that he would send letters to 12 to 15 countries that have yet to reach agreements with the United States to lower their economic barriers. Administration officials have said Mr. Trump will also announce several trade deals this week.Both Japan and South Korea are close American allies, but negotiations with have been proceeding slower than those with some other countries. That’s in part because both countries have been undergoing their own elections, and because Mr. Trump is continuing to impose or threaten other tariffs on their major exports, including cars, steel and electronics. The Japanese and Korean governments have been hesitant to offer Trump concessions, only to be hit with higher levies on some of their most important industries.In April, the president announced stiff global tariffs on nearly every trading partner but paused most of those levies until July 9 to try to win concessions. For the last 90 days, the administration has been trying to reach trade pacts with more than a dozen countries in an attempt to lower economic barriers to U.S. exports.So far, the United States has reached only two preliminary trade deals, with Britain and with Vietnam. They are scant on details and leave much to be worked out.More such limited trade deals could be announced in the coming days, including an initial trade framework with India. Countries that have so far agreed to trade deals, even preliminary handshake agreements, have qualified for lower tariff rates than what Mr. Trump threatened in April.Earlier Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said there would be “several announcements in the next 48 hours” on trade. With just days until the president’s July 9 deadline, the treasury secretary told CNBC that his “mailbox is full” with countries seeking to negotiate new deals, as the administration has “had a lot of people change their tune” ahead of the deadline.July 7, 2025, 12:48 p.m. ETTesla is the hardest hit stock in the S&P 500 right now, but most of that is tied to the idea by Elon Musk, its chief executive, to form a new political party. Outside of that, it appears to be mostly chip companies and retailers slumping.July 7, 2025, 12:43 p.m. ETStocks tumbled after Trump posted his letters on social media. The S&P 500 dropped as much as 1 percent before settling to trade roughly 0.8 percent lower for the day. Other major indexes also fell.July 7, 2025, 12:33 p.m. ETAna SwansonTrade and international economics reporterWe’re waiting to see if other tariff levels or trade deals will be announced today. The president said earlier that he would send letters to 12 to 15 countries informing them of the tariffs they will face starting Aug. 1, while some other countries made trade arrangements that will lower tariffs.July 7, 2025, 12:33 p.m. ETAna SwansonTrade and international economics reporterBoth Japan and South Korea are close American allies, but negotiations with them have been slower than some other countries. That’s in part because both countries have been undergoing their own elections, and in part because Trump is continuing to impose or threaten other tariffs on their major exports, including cars, steel and electronics.The Japanese and Korean governments have been hesitant to offer Trump concessions, only to be hit with higher levies on some of their most important industries.July 7, 2025, 12:30 p.m. ETAna SwansonTrade and international economics reporterThose 25 percent tariff rates are essentially the same as what the president threatened against those countries in April.July 7, 2025, 12:27 p.m. ETPresident Trump announced on Monday that he planned to subject imports from Japan and South Korea to new 25 percent tariffs, which would take effect Aug. 1. The president announced the actions in letters he posted to Truth Social, warning that he could increase them further, particularly if the nations retaliate.July 7, 2025, 12:23 p.m. ETImmigration advocates attending a vigil outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Miami in June 2023.Credit...Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA, via ShutterstockThe Trump administration on Monday ended protections for migrants from Honduras and Nicaragua that shielded them from deportation and allowed them to work, its latest effort to strip privileges from migrants since President Trump returned to office.The decision by the Homeland Security Department to end the protections for migrants from those countries, through a program known as Temporary Protected Status, goes into effect in about two months. The agency estimates that about 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans have T.P.S., though roughly 21,000 Hondurans and 1,100 Nicaraguans have also obtained permanent resident cards, known as green cards. Migrants from those countries had been covered under T.P.S. since 1999.Mr. Trump has for years criticized the T.P.S. program, which is intended to protect migrants from deportation if their home countries are facing natural disasters or conflict. The government periodically reviews the status but it can be renewed without limit, with the effect of giving migrants the ability to stay for an indefinite period.“Temporary Protected Status was designed to be just that — temporary,” Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement. “It is clear that the Government of Honduras has taken all of the necessary steps to overcome the impacts of Hurricane Mitch, almost 27 years ago.”Citizens of Honduras and Nicaragua first received the protection after the countries were hit by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.“Honduras has made significant progress recovering from the hurricane’s destruction and is now a popular tourism and real estate investment destination,” the agency said in a federal register notice. The agency said that Honduras had created a program to welcome back its citizens.The Trump administration has already moved to end T.P.S. for several countries, including Haiti, Venezuela and Afghanistan.Immigrant advocates said the decision would cause chaos for immigrants who have lived in the United States for a long period of time.“Just like the decisions for Afghanistan, Haiti and Venezuela, this move by the Trump administration will cast tens of thousands into precarious situations, not to mention the follow-on repercussions for employers and communities who have relied on many from Honduras and Nicaragua who have been living and working here for years,” said Robyn Barnard, a senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First.Federal courts have blocked the Trump administration’s previous efforts to end the program. Last week, a federal court judge blocked its termination for Haitians, saying that she did not have authority to cut the protections early. In March, a federal judge also blocked cutting T.P.S. for Venezuelans, but that ruling was paused by the Supreme Court in late May.July 7, 2025, 11:23 a.m. ETTesla shares dropped 7 percent in early trading Monday. President Trump posted on Sunday that the chief executive, Elon Musk, had gone “off the rails.”Credit...Mikayla Whitmore for The New York TimesWhen Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, asked his followers on X last week whether it was time to create a new political party, 80 percent answered “yes.” Wall Street seems to disagree.Tesla shares plunged 7 percent in early trading on Monday as investors registered dismay at Mr. Musk’s plans to form a third party and his intensifying feud with President Trump.Mr. Musk’s involvement in politics and his financial support for the president’s campaign was once seen by investors as a benefit to Tesla, fueling a steep rise in company shares after the election last year.That association has now turned into a liability. Tesla shares are down 40 percent from their peak in December.The relationship between the president and Mr. Musk has been deteriorating since last month, when Mr. Musk criticized the president’s sweeping policy bill, which he said would bankrupt the nation as it swells the budget deficit. Mr. Trump signed the bill into law on Friday.Even before that, Mr. Musk’s foray into politics had turned negative for Tesla. Mr. Musk’s support for Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, and his endorsement of far-right politicians in Europe, had alienated liberals — who are most likely to buy an electric car — and contributed to falling sales.Tesla said last week that it delivered 384,000 vehicles in the second quarter, down 14 percent from a year earlier.The chances that Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump would reconcile, as some investors hoped, dimmed Sunday after the president said on Truth Social that Mr. Musk had gone “off the rails” with his plans for a so-called America Party. The president also called Mr. Musk a “train wreck.”Mr. Musk reposted the president’s comments on X, the social media site he owns, without comment.July 7, 2025, 10:53 a.m. ETAlthough the European Union negotiates as a bloc, individual countries were lobbying for their own interests. France’s foreign trade minister, Laurent Saint-Martin, said Monday that a “small increase” in baseline tariffs would be acceptable to Paris “only if” some of France’s biggest industries, including aeronautics, wine and spirits and cosmetics, could get exemptions or reductions.He added that Europe would seek trade agreements with other countries and diversify away from America. “There is more to life than the United States,” he said in an interview on French radio.July 7, 2025, 10:05 a.m. ETAs European nations await tariff announcements from Washington, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, spoke by phone with President Trump on Sunday and had a “good exchange,” said an E.U. spokesman, Stefan de Keersmaecker. Officials said the bloc was still looking to strike a trade agreement in principle with the United States before this week’s deadline. Talks were reaching the “beginning of the endgame,” said Olof Gill, a spokesman for the commission.July 7, 2025, 9:57 a.m. ETDemonstrators outside Columbia University demanding the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and former Columbia student, in March.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York TimesA federal judge in Boston on Monday will hear opening statements in a trial expected to cut to the heart of several of the most divisive issues in U.S. politics, including President Trump, Israel and free speech on college campuses.The case, filed by a pair of academic associations in March, has become the foremost challenge to the Trump administration’s aggressive posture toward foreign students who espoused pro-Palestinian views. It contends that the government’s targeting of prominent noncitizen academics who have criticized Israel — such as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi of Columbia University and Rumeysa Ozturk of Tufts — has already partially succeeded in chilling political speech across the country, and should be categorically stopped on First Amendment grounds.All of those academics, who are either legal permanent residents or in the United States on student visas, have successfully fought for and obtained their release even as their immigration cases continue to wend through the courts.But lawyers for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, who are representing the associations, will argue at trial this week that the arrests were part of an official policy that could just as easily be turned on other groups that clash with the Trump administration.While the Supreme Court has affirmed in at least one major case that foreign nationals living in the United States are generally entitled to First Amendment rights, constitutional law experts have cautioned that there are few obvious legal parallels in American history.In its filings, the government has argued that pro-Palestinian demonstrations are an expression of support for Hamas, which the American government considers a terrorist organization. It has relied on Cold War-era precedents in which the Supreme Court upheld the government’s power to deny entry to people over their past membership in the Communist Party.Deciding whether the Trump administration overstepped will now fall to Judge William G. Young of Federal District Court in Massachusetts. A lifelong believer in the power of trials to clear up thorny legal questions, Judge Young has scheduled a nine-day bench trial — a trial without a jury — to explore whether the arrests and planned deportations fall within the president’s authority or amount to a grave abuse of power.In June, Judge Young blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to cancel science grants that funded research into diversity-related topics like health disparities in Black and L.G.B.T.Q. communities. He rejected the cuts as racial discrimination unlike anything he had seen from the government in his 40 years on the federal bench.In this case, through witnesses and evidence, lawyers from the Knight Institute will work to establish that the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security collaborated to surveil social media and other writings for content that could be used as justification for revoking visas and green cards in order to launch deportations.“It is totally antithetical to the First Amendment to allow the government to use immigration law as a cudgel in this way,” said Ramya Krishnan, a senior staff attorney at the Knight Institute who will appear in court on Monday. “If the First Amendment means anything, it means the government can’t lock you up because it doesn’t like what you have to say.”As much as the issues that will arise at trial seem inextricably linked to the fraught politics of the present, both sides acknowledge that they are deeply rooted in American history.In trial briefs, lawyers from both the Knight Institute and the government have looked to the height of the Cold War for cues, noting vague similarities to the way the Trump administration has sought to remove people based on a finding that their speech threatened the “national interest.”The government has denied that any blanket policy toward pro-Palestinian activists exists. But it has raised several Supreme Court decisions focused on people accused of Communist or anarchist sympathies, in which it found First Amendment protections did not apply. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said the government’s goal is to revoke the visas of “Hamas supporters in America.”“The court has already rejected a First Amendment challenge to a governmental effort to deport Communists for being Communists — i.e., an effort to prioritize immigration enforcement to combat a given political viewpoint,” the Justice Department wrote in one of its filings. “There is no constitutional difference to an effort to expel Hamas supporters.”Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight Institute, said the practices employed by the Trump administration evoked the widespread abuse of screening under the McCarran-Walter Act, long before social media was involved.He likened the current climate to the 1950s and 1960s, when the United States turned away cultural icons such as Gabriel García Márquez, Pablo Neruda and Doris Lessing, among others, over their association with Communism.“Now, instead of a handful of people being denied visas because they wrote books that the government misinterprets as sympathetic to Communism,” Mr. Jaffer said, “we have every consular officer turned into a kind of censor, reviewing everybody’s social media posts for any evidence of not just pro-Palestinian sentiment, but hostility to American values — whatever that means.”Over the course of the trial, the groups suing will call as witnesses a mix of noncitizen students and faculty members and U.S. citizens, including a Columbia University professor who worked alongside Mr. Khalil and Mr. Mahdawi.Most are members of the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, the two organizations behind the lawsuit, and will testify about their experience feeling pressure to censor themselves or witnessing a loss of engagement from their colleagues.Taken together, their testimony is expected to describe an intellectually impoverished academic environment, in which students and faculty members alike have begun avoiding topics out of step with conservative ideology because of fear of retribution, according to a pretrial brief.While the lawsuit is national in scope, and was filed before the Supreme Court limited lower courts’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions, the outcome could still be sweeping.Even if the judge were to limit his ruling to the groups involved in the lawsuit, both are national faculty-based associations, with tens of thousands of members between them across more than 500 colleges and universities.Above all, lawyers will work to impress upon the judge this week that any crackdown on speech is a slippery slope, and that the same tactics that unfolded this year could just as soon be applied to deport other groups based on support for other causes.“The same argument that they’re making could as easily be made with respect to pro-Greenland advocacy or pro-Canada advocacy or pro-Ukraine advocacy,” Mr. Jaffer said.“Some of the students that they have targeted are green-card holders, and they have also said repeatedly that they intend to go after naturalized citizens next,” he added. “So nobody should feel secure just because they’re targeting foreign students and nobody else.”July 7, 2025, 9:31 a.m. ETShortly after President Trump in April announced, then suspended, his high tariffs, his top aides insisted the White House hoped to sign 90 deals with trading partners in 90 days. One of those advisers, Peter Navarro, maintained on Monday that the administration was “happy with the progress we’ve had,” even though the U.S. government was nowhere close to its original goal just days before the pause expired.Navarro said on CNBC that the talks had shown “how difficult it is for these countries to give up the advantage they have over us,” but argued that the talks globally were “proceeding well.”July 7, 2025, 8:31 a.m. ETTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that there would be “several announcements in the next 48 hours” on trade, with President Trump’s 90-day pause on his highest tariff levels set to expire on July 9. Appearing on CNBC, Bessent reiterated the administration’s timeline: This week, officials plan to begin sending out letters informing nations about the levies they will be expected to pay starting in August on exports to the United States.Before that, the treasury secretary said his “mailbox was full last night” with countries seeking to negotiate new deals, claiming that the White House has “had a lot of people change their tune” ahead of the deadline.Credit...Valerie Plesch for The New York TimesJuly 7, 2025, 7:11 a.m. ETThe opening meeting of a summit of BRICS nations, at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sunday.Credit...Ricardo Moraes/ReutersPresident Trump threatened late Sunday to impose an additional tariff on countries that align themselves with the policies of BRICS nations, after the group expressed “serious concerns” over countries imposing unilateral tariffs.“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post. He did not elaborate, nor did he say what BRICS policies he was referring to.The BRICS countries — originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, and later expanded to include South Africa and a handful of other nations — began a two-day summit on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro. The group issued a statement that appeared to criticize the Trump administration’s tariffs and foreign policies, though it did not directly mention the president or the United States.The statement said that unilateral tariffs reduced global trade, disrupted supply chains and introduced uncertainty into international commerce. And it condemned military strikes on Iran last month, calling them “a violation of international law.” The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran in what both countries called a campaign aimed at Tehran’s nuclear facilities.It was unclear what nations Mr. Trump’s threat applied to. The BRICS group was set up in 2009 to increase the influence of the world’s biggest emerging economies. Besides the original members, it now includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.Mr. Trump announced stiff tariffs on nearly every trading partner in April. The White House then paused those tariffs for 90 days, until July 9, to try to win concessions, but only two preliminary deals, with Britain and Vietnam, have been announced.It is not the first time that the president has threatened BRICS nations. In June, he warned that if the countries replaced the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency, he would impose a 100 percent tariff. He had first made the threat after winning election last November. The month before that, a report prepared by Russia for a BRICS summit had called for the dollar’s central role in global finance to be “reassessed.”July 7, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ETAna SwansonTrade and international economics reporterPresident Trump plans to impose tariffs on some of America’s largest trading partners on Aug. 1.Credit...Michael A. McCoy for The New York TimesPresident Trump is set to rekindle economic pressure on America’s trading partners this week, as a deadline for making trade deals elapses and the administration begins notifying countries of the tariffs they’ll face on exports to the United States.For 90 days, the administration has been trying to reach trade pacts with dozens of countries in an attempt to lower economic barriers to U.S. exports. In April, the president imposed stiff global tariffs on nearly every trading partner but paused most of those levies until July 9 to try and win concessions.So far, the United States has reached only two preliminary trade deals, with Britain and with Vietnam, which are scant on details and leave much to be worked out.More such limited trade deals could be announced in the coming days, including an initial trade framework with India. Countries that have so far agreed to trade deals, even preliminary handshake agreements, have qualified for lower tariff rates than what Mr. Trump threatened in April.Other countries that have not reached agreements are expected to face sharply higher tariffs, although the president and his advisers have recently implied that the tariffs may not go into effect until Aug. 1, rather than on July 9.Still, with tariffs threatening to strain diplomatic relations and bring some global commerce to a halt, a delay of a few weeks may not to do much to soothe many foreign governments. It could also further unsettle financial markets, which revolted when Mr. Trump initially announced his global tariffs, a meltdown that prompted Mr. Trump to institute the 90-day delay.Mr. Trump said late Sunday that his administration would begin sending out letters on Monday at noon Eastern to trading partners dictating the tariff rates their products would face.He also threatened an additional 10 percent tariff against countries aligned with “the anti-American policies of BRICS,” using an acronym for a group of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.Whether Mr. Trump’s pugilistic approach forces countries to agree to quick trade deals or incites retaliation and trade wars will be a critical test for the president’s extraordinarily aggressive and unpredictable approach to international trade.Since taking office Mr. Trump has raised tariffs to levels not seen in a century, before abruptly pausing many of them. Mr. Trump’s supporters argue that his tariff threats have created leverage to forge new agreements and secure better terms for American businesses and the economy. Critics say his tactics have disrupted global trade flows and financial markets and stripped businesses of the certainty they need to plan, resulting in higher prices, less investment and slower economic growth for the country.The president’s announcement of steep global tariffs in April threw stock and bond markets into turmoil — in part because the levies were incredibly punishing for many of the nation’s biggest trading partners. Mr. Trump was persuaded to pause his tariffs for a period of 90 days, which calmed markets, and convinced some investors and analysts that, although the president sees tariff threats as a valuable source of leverage, he would stop short of imposing tariffs at a level that would disrupt markets or cause severe harm to the economy.But in recent months, the president himself has repeatedly called that idea into question. In May, he threatened to impose a 50 percent flat tariff on the European Union, saying the bloc was not offering enough concessions. He then paused those levies until July 9.Mr. Trump continues to profess a belief in the value of tariffs as a way to balance out international trade relationships and finally make the world more fair for U.S. businesses, which he says have long been ripped off by foreigners.While Mr. Trump’s advisers praise him as a consummate deal maker, the president has often seemed more interested in maintaining high tariffs on foreign goods than in striking trade deals that would lower economic barriers for American companies and encourage more international business flows.Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on July 4, the president said he had quickly decided what tariff rate to apply to foreign countries.“I’ve been looking at it for many years,” he said. “Frankly, I think it’s ridiculous that countries were able to get away with so much.”The government’s trade negotiators have also been overwhelmed as they try to simultaneously hammer out trade deals with multiple partners. Dozens of countries, ranging from South Korea and Malaysia to Lesotho and Switzerland, have reached out to the United States in recent months to try to reach an agreement that would prevent the Trump administration from applying hefty tariffs to their exports.“People are just extremely stretched,” said Wendy Cutler, a vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. trade negotiator.Some of those negotiations have proceeded swiftly, propelled by common interests and good relations. Vietnam and the United Kingdom, for example, have agreed to open their markets to U.S. agriculture, buy more Boeing airplanes and cut down on certain ties to China, among other changes.Last week, Mr. Trump’s threats against Canada also appeared to produce rapid results. After Mr. Trump said in late June that he would suspend trade talks with Canada over its digital services tax on American tech companies, the Canadian government abruptly scrapped the measure.“Deals with Vietnam and other countries may very well show that there’s method to the tariff madness,” said Michael Wessel, a longtime trade adviser. “The devil, of course, is in the details, but it’s well past time to rebalance the playing field,” he added.Still, many other businesses say the tariff threats have been extremely disruptive and there appears to be little evidence in the U.S. economic data yet that tariffs are broadly helping manufacturers. Instead, the uncertainty created by Mr. Trump’s tariff threats appears to be slowing investment and hiring, potentially backfiring on the president’s plans to boost U.S. factory activity.Spending on construction of factories in the United States has fallen since Mr. Trump was elected in November, and the number of Americans working in factories has slumped since last year. In recent months, U.S. manufacturers have shed roughly thousands of jobs, though growth in health care and other sectors has eclipsed those losses and resulted in strong employment data.It remains to be seen whether the tariffs Mr. Trump may reimpose in the coming weeks will again set off a drop in the stock markets or pushback from industry. But the president shows little sign of backing away from using his favorite trade tool to try to cow foreign countries and businesses into concessions.The legitimacy of the president’s global tariffs has been called into question by U.S. courts, and some of his tariffs could be declared illegal this fall. Still, administration officials have said they have other legal authorities they could turn to in that event to pursue similar policies.Even for those countries that have struck deals with the Trump administration, tariffs remain extraordinarily high, creating a tax on both American consumers and importing businesses that economists expect to drag on economic activity.Exports from the United Kingdom remain subject to a 10 percent universal tariff, which the Trump administration shows no signs of dropping, even for America’s closest allies.The preliminary trade deal with Vietnam lowers tariffs on some Vietnamese products to 20 percent rather than the 46 percent Mr. Trump threatened in April. But many business groups that rely on imports from Vietnam, such as the footwear industry, say that 20 percent rate will raise costs for American consumers.It is also not clear what the deal with Vietnam actually entails. The president announced the agreement with Vietnam on social media last week, but no text or other fact sheets have yet been released by the governments.Other major trading partners, like the European Union and Japan, have proven more challenging to negotiate with. Like other governments, the European Union and Japan remain wary of additional tariffs the president has imposed or is still threatening on their critical sectors, like automobiles, pharmaceuticals and steel. They have also been reluctant to open their markets to American agricultural exports that could undercut their own farmers.If the Trump administration does not strike deals with major trading partners, it could end up stoking trade wars instead. Foreign governments including the European Union have prepared retaliatory packages of tariffs on U.S. exports that they are threatening to impose if hit by further American levies.John Raines, Head of North America, economics and country risk at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a note that many trading partners that were currently negotiating might see their tariffs paused, but that there were many “caveats to bear in mind.”Reaching a provisional trade deal could increase trade policy certainty at least temporarily for a country. But it does not necessarily mean tariffs will be low, as some countries face tariffs much higher than the universal 10 percent levy set by Mr. Trump. Even countries that reach deals may still face future tariffs that Mr. Trump intends to impose on critical sectors like electronics and pharmaceuticals, Mr. Raines said.But he said that Mr. Trump could also quickly back down again after imposing higher tariffs, as he has on previous occasions.“Countries or territories threatened with higher tariffs may experience such tariffs lasting only days or weeks, as the administration may back down as a result of adverse market conditions, or if it perceives that negotiations have progressed positively following the initiation of the higher tariff threat,” he wrote.Tyler Pager contributed reporting.July 6, 2025, 8:25 p.m. ETElon Musk was regularly seen alongside President Trump. After he left his role as a special government employee at the end of May, their relationship has grown cold, and the two men often spar over social media.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York TimesPresident Trump assailed Elon Musk on Sunday night, describing him as “off the rails” after Mr. Musk said he was creating a new political party amid an ongoing rift with the president.“I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely ‘off the rails,’ essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday evening. “He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States.”Mr. Musk’s effort to create a new political party, called the America Party, is the latest rupture in his relationship with Mr. Trump. Mr. Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, and then Mr. Trump rewarded him with a wide-ranging position overseeing drastic cuts to government staffing and contracts.Their close bond crumbled in a public spectacle last month, as Mr. Trump pushed his sprawling domestic policy bill through Congress. Mr. Musk panned the legislation, which is projected to add trillions to the federal debt, as a “disgusting abomination.” He has said he would support primary challengers against any Republican who voted for the legislation, which passed with almost unanimous Republican support, but he has given few details about his new political party.“Backing a candidate for president is not out of the question, but the focus for the next 12 months is on the House and the Senate,” Mr. Musk wrote on X on Sunday.Mr. Trump has also threatened to cut billions of dollars in federal contracts and tax subsidies for Mr. Musk’s companies.Mr. Trump said Sunday night that Mr. Musk had opposed the legislation because it eliminated tax credits for electric vehicles, which would have been a boon for Tesla, one of Mr. Musk’s companies.“I have campaigned on this for two years and, quite honestly, when Elon gave me his total and unquestioned Endorsement, I asked him whether or not he knew that I was going to terminate the EV Mandate — It was in every speech I made, and in every conversation I had,” Mr. Trump wrote in his post. “He said he had no problems with that — I was very surprised!”Mr. Musk did previously support ending the electric vehicle tax credits, but has done an about-face more recently, as Tesla’s sales have dropped this year.Mr. Trump also said that Mr. Musk was furious that the president had pulled the nomination of Jared Isaacman, who has twice launched to orbit in a SpaceX vehicle and is a close friend of Mr. Musk’s, to run NASA. Mr. Trump withdrew the nomination after a White House official highlighted for Mr. Trump that Mr. Isaacman had previously donated to prominent Democrats.Mr. Isaacman met with Mr. Trump during the transition and disclosed the donations before he was nominated. But as Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Musk was fracturing, a White House official resurfaced the donations, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.Mr. Trump, who also has not walled off his or his family’s business interests from the government, offered another reason on Sunday for pulling Mr. Isaacman’s nomination.“I also thought it inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life,” Mr. Trump wrote.Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said on Sunday that the goals of Mr. Musk’s past government cost-cutting effort, through the Department of Government Efficiency, were popular. But the billionaire himself, Mr. Bessent said, was not.“I believe that the boards of directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run those companies, which he is better at than anyone,” he said on CNN on Sunday. “So I imagine that those board of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.”Maggie Haberman and Theodore Schleifer contributed reporting.July 6, 2025, 2:45 p.m. ET“There’s a lot of foot dragging on the other side, and so I would expect to see several big announcements over the next couple of days,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that he was confident the Trump administration would be able to reach deals with some countries before the deadline on Tuesday for steep tariffs would take effect.But he also held out the possibility that the deadline could be extended to Aug. 1 for countries seeking to reach deals.“There’s a lot of foot dragging on the other side, and so I would expect to see several big announcements over the next couple of days,” Mr. Bessent said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He added, “We’re going to be very busy over the next 72 hours.”In addition, Mr. Bessent said that the administration would begin informing countries about the tariff rates they could face if they did not quickly reach trade agreements with the United States.“President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners, saying that, if you don’t move things along, then, on Aug. 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,” Mr. Bessent said. “So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly.”Mr. Trump said late Sunday, in a post on social media, that the United States would be delivering letters beginning Monday at noon.The president also said that any country aligned with “the anti-American policies of BRICS,” an acronym for a group of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will be charged an additional 10 percent tariff. He did not provide any additional details.Mr. Bessent’s and Mr. Trump’s comments came just three days before a 90-day pause on the president’s steepest levies is set to expire.Mr. Trump first mentioned the possible Aug. 1 extension in comments to reporters on Air Force One on Friday night.“It’s not a new deadline,” Mr. Bessent said Sunday. “We are saying this is when it’s happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice.”Mr. Trump announced his so-called reciprocal tariffs, in early April, only to suspend them shortly after, when the threat of the steep duties roiled global financial markets.So far, the United States has reached preliminary trade deals with Vietnam and the United Kingdom, far from Trump’s goal of 90 deals in 90 days.Mr. Bessent said he was confident that the administration would be able to reach deals within the next few days once the letters were sent out. “We have the leverage in this situation,” he said.Tyler Pager contributed reporting.