- President Trump suggests positive update coming on Iran deal.
- US president grants EU tariffs extension request till July 9.
- Trump signals more sanctions over Russia’s Ukraine offensive.
MORRISTOWN: President Donald Trump said on Sunday that US negotiators had “very good” talks with an Iranian delegation over the weekend as he seeks a deal to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
“I think we could have some good news on the Iran front,” Trump told reporters at the Morristown, New Jersey, airport as he prepared to return to Washington after a weekend at his Bedminster golf club.
Trump said serious progress had been made. He did not elaborate on the talks in Rome between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and an Iranian delegation.
“I don’t know if I’ll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good,” he said.
Trump agrees to delay EU tariffs until July 9
Trump backed away on Sunday from his threat to slap 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union next month, agreeing to extend the deadline until July 9 for talks between Washington and the 27-nation bloc to produce a deal.
Trump on Friday said he was recommending a 50% tariff go into place on June 1 because of frustration that talks with the EU were not moving quickly enough. The threat roiled global financial markets and intensified a trade war that has been punctuated by frequent changes in tariff policies toward US trading partners and allies.
Trump, who has repeatedly expressed disdain for the EU and its treatment of the United States on trade, relented after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told him on Sunday that the EU needed more time to come to an agreement.
She asked him during a call to delay the tariffs until July, the deadline he had originally set when he announced new tariffs in April. Trump told reporters he had granted the request.
“We had a very nice call, and I agreed to move it,” Trump said before returning to Washington after a weekend in New Jersey. “She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out.”
Von der Leyen said in a post on X that she had a “good call” with Trump and that the EU was ready to move quickly.
“Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” she said. “To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”
The euro and US dollar rose against the safe-haven yen and Swiss franc after the deadline extension.
In early April, Trump set a 90-day window for trade talks between the EU and the United States, which was to end on July 9. But on Friday he upended that timeframe and said he wasn’t interested in a deal at all.
“I’m not looking for a deal,” Trump said then. “We’ve set the deal – it’s at 50%.” Major US stock indexes and European shares dropped and the dollar weakened as a result.
Trump has sought to upend the world economy with his trade policies, but after his announcement in April of tariffs on multiple countries sparked financial market upheaval, he dialed down his threats in favour of talks. Since then Washington has inked a pact with Britain and has held discussions with China.
But progress with the European Union has been more limited, sparking Trump’s ire and adding to broader tensions between the two allies over Trump’s “America first” agenda and Europe’s longtime reliance on Washington for security and defence needs.
Trump says he is not happy with Putin for bombing Ukraine
Donald Trump also expressed deep unhappiness at Russia’s weekend bombing of Ukraine, saying of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “I’m not happy with Putin.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him. What the hell happened to him? Right? He’s killing a lot of people. I’m not happy about that,” Trump told reporters at the airport in Morristown, New Jersey, as he prepared to return to Washington.
Trump spoke in reaction to a Russian barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight on Sunday, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more.
Trump has been trying to get both sides to agree to a ceasefire in the three-year-old war in Ukraine and he spoke for more than two hours with Putin last week.
He raised the possibility of imposing more sanctions on Russia in response to the ongoing attacks.
“Always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” Trump said.
