President Donald Trump said early Thursday he will sign a trade deal with Britain that will be America’s first since he announced sweeping global tariffs that have hammered markets and threaten to upend the global economy.
“This should be a very big and exciting day for the United States of America and the United Kingdom,” he said in a Truth Social post, adding that there would be a news conference in the Oval Office at 10 a.m. ET.
In a subsequent post, Trump said the agreement would be a “full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come.”
He added that “many other deals” will follow, some of which are in “serious stages of negotiation.”
“Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement,” the president said.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that foreign nations are eager to ink a deal with Washington to avoid the worst effects of the wave of levies he announced last month, but this would be the first such deal. Only four countries import more U.S. goods than the U.K, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Trump dangled the possibility of a U.K. trade deal in his first term and was a vocal supporter of Brexit, suggesting that some of the ground work had been done before this year’s tariffs.
The New York Times was the first to report Wednesday that Trump planned to announce a deal with Britain, citing three people familiar with the deal.
The deal would be a boost for Trump, who said nations were “dying to make a deal” in the wake of his tariffs announcement April 2, which he called “liberation day.”
Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro then said there could be “90 deals in 90 days” — but 36 days on, there have been none, while countries across the world complained that the tariffs were unfair and uncalled for, most notably China, and as Trump seeks to calm fears over price rises at home.
The British government said in a statement early Thursday that it was in talks with Washington over a potential deal, but would not confirm the signing, instead saying that Starmer would have an update later. The British Department of Business and Trade said in a statement that it would not comment on “speculation.”
“The United States is an indispensable ally for both our economic and national security. Talks on a deal between our countries have been continuing at pace and the Prime Minister will update later today,” said a spokesperson for No. 10 Downing St., the prime minister’s private office and official residence.
During a swearing-in ceremony for his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, on Wednesday, Trump said the U.K. wants “to make a deal very badly.”
“I think that United Kingdom, like every other country, they want to, they want to go shopping in the United States of America,” Trump said during the Oval Office event.
The deal will be the first publicly announced by Trump since he enacted — and then paused — new tariffs on dozens of countries.
