And franky1, trump is talking, media is reporting about it. If trump is incoherent, or wants to be cryptic about it, don't blame media for reporting what he says.
Only who never wanted to negotiate in the first place was Donald Trump, and who knows how dumb his terms are going to be and why would people accept them? Why would you think he would make any better deals then he has done in the past? Or maybe he don't remember what deals were made by him?
media is not reporting everything.. ever heard of clickbait
if you want to just take media's clipped short quotes as gospel then you are not understanding the full context of most quotes.. thats where you have to do your own research as media are crap at investigative journalism, they just want the quick quote and use it to create click bait emotionally provocative stories using their own bias opinions of interpretation
even months ago trump has been saying most of the time that tariffs are a good tool for negotiations of other things that can benefit america
remember how he wanted to implement tariffs on mexico to help negotiate terms to get them to secure the US southern border to prevent migrants. remember how he wanted to use tariffs on canada to help negotiate how canada can further secure the US northern border to prevent drugs trafficking of fentanyl compounds
tariffs were always aimed at being a negotiation tool of political partnership deals of things unrelated to just goods transfer fees