Scott Bessent Reveals Number Of Trading Partners Trump Team Currently Negotiating With

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday on “Hannity” that 17 trading partners have come forward to negotiate deals with the Trump administration.

Just a day after President Donald Trump’s official 100 days in office, the Republican-led Senate voted Wednesday to justify his sweeping global tariffs, which he originally revealed on April 2. During a discussion with Fox host Sean Hannity, the host asked Bessent about the “state” of the deals, questioning where the U.S. currently stands and if official deals will be signed “in the near future.”

“Yeah, Sean, what I believe, and you can see it, the president had this incredible first 100 days. Just look at the success of the border. Now we closed the first 100 days with this deal where President Trump is one of the first presidents to create assets rather than debt for the American people,” Bessent said.

“Now we’re moving on to the trade deals. President Trump has created the maximum optionality, maximum pressure for our trading partners. By showing the high level of tariffs from April 2 that are possible, they’ve all come to the table to negotiate,” Bessent added. “So we’ve got 18 important trading partners. We put China to the side. Seventeen have not escalated. We are in negotiations with them. There’s a process in place.”

WATCH:

Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs against a list of countries, setting a baseline of 10% for the tariffs, but adjusting some according to what others had imposed on the United States. However, by April 9, the president announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs for all countries besides China, which had responded with retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. (RELATED: Trump Administration, Ukraine Reach Landmark Minerals Deal)

As Bessent began explaining how Trump had responded to handling the tariffs, Hannity interrupted to clarify that “all 17” trading partners had come to the table.

“All 17 have approached us. We are batching them in groups at a time,” Bessent said. “But we’ve had 100 approach us, and we are working with the top 17 to try to move them along as quickly as possible. Knowing that their levels could ratchet back up to the April 2 tariff level has made everyone come to the table with some, what I would say, are very good proposals.”

Since the pause on the tariffs, Trump administration officials have hinted at potential deals with foreign countries, but they have released limited information on the details. During a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the U.S. had received “18 proposals on paper” from foreign countries to negotiate tariffs.

The president also signaled on April 22 that the 145% tariff against China would “come down substantially,” but he said it would not be eliminated entirely.

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