How is the administration’s call to do 90 deals in 90 days going? 
Unfolding as Promised
On April 12, Peter Navarro bragged about 90 pending deals in 90 days.
“So this is unfolding exactly like we thought it would in a dominant scenario,” Navarro said in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” when asked how consumers and businesses can make decisions “when it seems as though the president’s trade policies are shifting at a moment’s notice.”
“We’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here,” Navarro continued. “And it was par for the course, actually it was a birdie for President Trump to do exactly what he did, which was pause for 90 days. And we’re going to get this done for the American people.”
What’s the Starting Date for 90 Days?
On April 2, and Trump’s Big Announcement Is Half-Reciprocal Tariffs on the World
Factoring in value added taxes and other alleged manipulations, Trump announces Half-Reciprocal Tariffs with a minimum baseline of 10 percent.
45 days from April 2 would be May 17. Today is the May 19.
But start with the 90 day pause on April 9. That would make the midpoint May 24.
So give Trump another 5 days, with 90 deals “possibly pending” already on April 12.
Deals Announced
On May 8, I commented Hooray! A Tentative Deal with the UK, Only 199 Deals to Go
Trump worked out a deal with the UK, a US trade surplus country.
Q: Where Did 200 Deals Come From?
A: Trump
On April 25, I noted Trump Tells Time Magazine He Has Made 200 Deals Already, Refused to Name Any
Time (in bold): Your trade adviser, Peter Navarro, says 90 deals in 90 days is possible. 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?
Trump (regular font): No, there’s many deals.
When are they going to be announced?
You have to understand, I’m dealing with all the companies, very friendly countries. We’re meeting with China. We’re doing fine with everybody. But ultimately, I’ve made all the deals.
Not one has been announced yet. When are you going to announce them?
I’ve made 200 deals.
You’ve made 200 deals?
100%.
I’m just curious, why don’t you announce these deals that you’ve solidified?
I would say, over the next three to four weeks, and we’re finished, by the way.
You’re finished?
We’ll be finished.
Oh, you will be finished in three to four weeks.
I’ll be finished. Now, some countries may come back and ask for an adjustment, and I’ll consider that, but I’ll basically be, with great knowledge, setting—ready? We’re a department store, a giant department store, the biggest department store in history.
Is Everyone Happy With the One Deal Made?
On May 9, I commented Big Three Automakers Blast Trump’s UK Trade Deal
It only took one day for complaints to roll in. Also, Ford is hiking prices.
One would think, well maybe, we are dealing with Trump here, that someone would have consulted the auto industry over this carve out.
However, there was pressure to complete a deal, any deal, given Trump’s promise of 200 deals.
On April 8, 2025, I noted Musk Calls Trump’s Trade Advisor a “Moron Who’s Dumber than a Sack of Bricks”
I strongly side with Musk on this one.
Since then, Trump took Navarro’s preposterous 90 deals in 90 days and upped that to 200 deals already made “100 percent”.
Roughly half way in, we have one deal. And that deal is on thin ice.
What a total clown show.
“According to Trump cultists, at this point you are just blindly spewing hate at Trump. So let’s hear their side of the argument instead of them just bagging on Mish.”
Take a shot – What the hell is their side of 90 deals in 90 days?
Better yet, defend 200 deal made already, “100% guaranteed”
Go ahead. We are listening.
You seem very impatient. Trade deals take time, and sometimes they cannot be finalized, leading to a walkaway. I’m unsure whether you find the pace too slow or the idea itself unappealing—or perhaps both. Your impatience stems from a desire for quick validation. For now, there’s little to discuss since neither of us is privy to the actual negotiations, and I’m not interested in idle speculation about what we don’t know.
90 days takes 90 days.
And one deal out of a claimed 200 is exactly 00.5%
Yes. Trade deals take time. Often much more than a year. Yet on April 22 Trump said he has 200 deals ready to sign already, within 3-4 weeks. But he won’t name the 200 countries and won’t provide any proof.
How many of those 200 comprehensive trade deals do you think Trump will have signed within his 3-4 week time frame?
Since today is 4 weeks since his statement, my guess is zero.
I answer is I don’t know nor do you nor did I ever expect his timeline is the same as yours or mine. It will be finished when it will be finished. I can understand why some people are impatient but you are intelligent enough to realize that public pronouncements by all sides here are part of the negotiation process.
Ummm, zero chance this happens since we know what timelines mean to a serial liar. Two weeks away from a beautiful healthcare plan was five years ago? And since then we heard about “a concept”?
Doug, Perhaps you should simply admit that trump is a liar and has none (maybe one) of those deals completed. Mish is simply noting what trump boasted about. Unfortunately, our trading partners, and former trading partners, know that trump is a blowhard!
I want him to succeed because I believe it would be good for the country. Mish expects Trump to fail because his policies run against his Libertarian principles however you wish him to fail because you get pleasure out of seeing others fail.
Wrong again, I get pleasure from seeing people succeed! Success has been a landmark of my life. Trump can not succeed because he deceives himself and others at everything he does. Trump is a fraud and liar.
Did he tell America that other countries would pay the tariffs? Yes he did. In fact our nations importers pay the tariffs and pass them on to the consumer. That consumer is you and me.
I do understand that it is easier to go forward telling yourself that things will somehow work out for trump and you have not been deceived. It is easier to continue to tell lies than to admit that you have been taken in by a charlatan.
Eventually, you will have to face the fact that trump is a liar.
You must believe Zeno’s halfway paradox too. What if all the deals are signed on day 90? It is idiocy to assume that X amount of deals should be done after X amount of days. And who cares if they get done in day 90 or day 180. This will make the country better. Mish you have turned into a left-wing looney. You used to write about important economic stuff…. Now mostly what you do is exactly what the main stream media does, write heavily slanted articles that are an attack on this administration. Please go back to writing in a non biased manner.
If you actually believe there is a chance of 90 deals in 90 days then you are stupid as you sound.
Get a grip.
Since you failed to notice I am one of the 1% or perhaps less that does not give a damn about politics. I am a Libertarian who is anti-war and wants a balanced budget.
You have TDS Type II.
On April 22 Trump said 200 deals ready to sign in 3-4 weeks. Today is the end of those 4 weeks. Where are they?
And now Bessent says reciprocal day tariff rates will be brought back for all countries that refuse to negotiate.
If some of the world’s 190 countries are refusing to negotiate, how can we have 200 trade deals ready to sign?
Lol! What a show!
“Lol! What a show!”
Doesn’t seem very funny or entertaining to me. These insane or incredibility stupid people are running our government. What do you think will be left in four years when we might elect a sane POTUS from either or any party? Will there be enough left to recover?
Trump and his cadre must go. It’s my opinion that if anyone votes MAGA in the midterms they are anti American. That is if we make it to the midterms as a functional democratic republic at all.
Yes. This is our government. And there is nothing we can do about it. Except for 2 things:
Laugh.
Profit.
This is important economic stuff and as with Biden, Mish is holding trump accountable for what he says, claims and does. Were you complaining when Biden was spewing his nonsense and Mish held him accountable?
In case you had not noticed, trump is sucking mud at these negotiations!
Meanwhile the MSM you cite is giving trump a free pass and reporting on whatever headline he puts out there. They are not commenting on the fact that the container ships in China are not leaving ports and heading to the U.S. to supply us – nor are shipments of rare earths for our defense systems heading this way.
China continues to deflect our grain and LNG shipments to other trading nations where they are sold at a discount.
Meanwhile Quatar is filling every ship it can with LNG and sending it to China. These are non-biased facts and the shit is about to hit the fan with shortages of medical products and serious inflation of others.
Elections have consequences!
I am not sure I would call the UK agreement a “deal”. It’s more like a rough outline of something that will be hammered out later.
Bessent says that the US will go back to the reciprocal tariff rates from Liberation Day for every country that doesn’t negotiate!
Woohoo!
Let’s bring those tariffs back! Hopefully on as many countries as possible.
I want to see how this all plays out, given enough time.
The fact that Trump piles on these Tariffs and than tells Walmart to absorb the price increases and not pass them on to the consumer is ridiculous. Walmart has “Rollback” signs on every item they lower the price on, they should place $Rollforward” signs on every item that has a Trump Tariff price increase.
Again, what is a point of making any deal if you cannot trust Trump. you can sign some non binding agreement to make orange man happy but you don’t commit to anything.
Plus nobody wants to be a sucker. Say you sign a deal, make some concession to USA only to find out Trump is changing his mind and scrapping this off for everybody around. Again this all comes back to trust.
So safest approach is to wait and see. I am pretty sure other countries already agreed together how to handle this all.
Yep. The strategy is to stall till Trump caves. It’s working very well so far.
Which is why Trump has to pretend that he is signing comprehensive trade deals.
I would be surprised if he can do 5 comprehensive deals in his 4 year term. Not 90 deals in 90 days. And certainly not 200 deals. Lol!
We are on the precipice of massive inflation all due to Trump….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14707641/Target-employee-exposes-tariff-price-hike-popular-items.html
A $9.99 USB-C cord….to $17.99.
Got SPY Puts?
When I lived in Europe I always had to pay VAT on purchases of all kinds. Is the VAT referred to on imports Trump/Navarro speak of a “different VAT” from “everyday VAT. If not, why are they referring to the VAT a an import trick?
European companies do not pay the VAT on the products they export making them 20% cheaper however when the US exports to Europe the products are sold with the VAT added on. Because the US does not have a VAT tax and Europe does it gives Europe an advantage. If we had a VAT the same level as that of Europe that advantage would go away.
Plus tariffs and duties. I sent to my daughter in England a couple of gifts before Christmas (declared value $100) and she had to pay about 20 pounds or so to release the package from customs.
Which is par for the course, European companies pay VAT when they sell at home, and so do imports from all over the world. Since 99% of countries have VAT, nobody has any issue with it. VAT is a domestic finance policy, not a trade advantage policy.
You are right in that. It is a domestic tax policy but I don’t see any country proposing to slap a 20% VAT on the products they export either so it must have some effect on trade.
The US don’t have a federal VAT indeed, but state sales tax, which US companies don’t pay either when they export. So there’s no difference how consumers and companies are taxed on both sides of the Atlantic, just in which level of government taxes.
None have a 20% sales tax.
Math is hard man.
But let me try to make it as simple as possible, In this example above I removed tariffs and transport cost,
Not big fan of vat. Actually vat carousel fraud is one of most profitable ways to scan government of tax money. Many small fortunes made on it.
Doug78 is too stupid to understand this.
Read this PapaDave and learn about how VAT actually works. It seems you know little outside of Canadian oil and gas companies.
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/consumption-tax-trends-2022_6525a942-en/full-report.html
Lol! Yep. And it proves you have no f*cking idea how the VAT works.
Thanks for proving it!
That is the true picture in theory but it ignores the fact that the German exporter is refunded for the VATs paid on inputs (raw materials and such) while the American producer does not so the German carmaker, because of the VAT, has lower production costs than the American carmaker. The American company pays taxes on the inputs. The German company is reimbursed for those input taxes. That is the difference. You should have put those factors in your example but perhaps you weren’t aware of how the VAT tax actually works. I suggest to look at the OECD’s page on VATs where they discuss this issue in detail.
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/consumption-tax-trends-2022_6525a942-en/full-report.html
This is an incorrect comparison because the American producer does not pay input taxes (and thus has nothing to be refunded). Sales tax in the USA is only charged to the final consumer.
The answers people gave tell me a lot about their business experience. If you are American you wouldn’t know much about how VATs work unless of course you work at a level in international business where knowing how a VAT works is highly important when you are making your P&L. If you are European then not knowing the details means that you know VAT only as a consumer and not in a position high enough where that knowledge is crucial. I conclude that the people who responded to me are not in top levels and are probably just investors whose actual experience is reading P&Ls and balance sheets but have never had to actually make one for a company that deals in international business leading to holes in their reasoning. That is excusable. What not is excusable is the total lack of them making the effort to find out even the basics of VATs before answering. That is being just plain lazy.
that is hogwash. vat is a sales tax not applied to imports. more akin to the myriad of fees and sales taxes we all pay from gas to food and r/e………..
Read my answer above.
Your answer proves that he is right and you are wrong. Yet you are too stupid to understand.
European consumers pay the VAT on whatever product they buy, regardless of whether it is domestic or imported. So, it is a level playing field for all products, domestic or imported.
Input taxes are reimbursed to the German company while they are not for the American one giving the German company a lower production cost. VAT 101.
This Logic doesn’t hold water because American companies don’t pay input taxes in the first place. Sales tax in the US is only charged to the final consumer.
chairman mao zeDon will pivot from the cultural revolution to the great leap forward…………..and his cult of red brigade will applaud.
The executive clown is too busy:
stepping on the legislature’s shoes…
tugging on judicial robes…
to do what he says.
Federal judge overturns Trump’s efforts to take over and cripple US Institute of Peace | CNN Politics
“Howell wrote that Trump and his subordinates ‘used brute force and threats of criminal process to take over USIP’s headquarters, despite being cautioned that this organization did not fall within the Executive branch and its leadership was not subject to the President’s unilateral Executive branch removal power.’
‘This Administration then went even further, taking severe actions to dissemble USIP, including terminating its appointed Board members, its expert management, its dedicated staff and contractors located in both Washington, D.C. and around the world, and dispersing its assets and headquarters building,’ the judge wrote. ‘These actions against USIP were unlawful.’”
Mish, thank you for holding these liars accountable.
There noses ought to grow like Pinocchio every time they open their mouths.
He is not Pinocchio.
He is a Politician as well as a businessman.
He is an insane old man.
According to Trump cultists, at this point you are just blindly spewing hate at Trump. So let’s hear their side of the argument instead of them just bagging on Mish.
MAGA is busy hating on MAGA. Looks like it’s fracturing into 1000 little pieces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsEnTGdTgfA
“According to Trump cultists, at this point you are just blindly spewing hate at Trump. So let’s hear their side of the argument instead of them just bagging on Mish.”
Take a shot – What the hell is their side of 90 deals in 90 days?
Better yet, defend 200 deal made already, “100% guaranteed”
Go ahead. We are listening.
exactly. and extra points for using bagging. haven’t heard that one since the 70s
Ah, but had you sold the majestic high and bought the magnificent dip you’d be wealthy beyond measure in just a few weeks. Everything is gamed now, nothing real. So Papa Dave can maneuver deftly and clean up! Cannot imagine actually trying to run a business with this much uncertainty…inflation expectations, interest rates, tariff, taxes, employee availability / salary demands, supply chain.
It’s always been a game.
Recall the daytrading craze of the late 90’s.
People made more money at that, than at their day jobs.
Would that it were not so.
There are 200 deals, but they’re all double top secret.
In a brief order, the justices approved an emergency application from the administration, allowing officials to undo a Biden-era extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that shields Venezuelans from deportation and grants them work permits. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter, indicating she would have denied the request.