President Donald Trump could expand his tariff negotiating strategy to Arab nations should they continue to resist his demands to resettle Palestinian refugees ahead of the Gaza cleanup effort.
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz told the Washington Examiner about the possible tariff plan Wednesday morning, just hours after the president announced alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States would soon “take over” Gaza.
TRUMP SAYS THE US WILL TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THE GAZA STRIP WITH ISRAEL’S SUPPORT
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Israel’s war against Hamas has turned Gaza into a “demolition site” and has pressured Arab nations, specifically Egypt and Jordan, to admit displaced Palestinians rather than have them return to Gaza ahead of the cleanup and rebuilding effort.
So far, all Arab nations have rejected Trump’s request, and Waltz affirmed that new tariffs could be on the table as leverage throughout those discussions.
“I think President Trump views tariffs as a key tool for our foreign policy,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Oil products, including crude, make up the overwhelming majority of U.S. imports from the Middle East and Africa. In 2022, the latest complete data set provided by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the U.S. imported $108.5 billion in goods and services from the region, including $30.6 billion from Israel.
That same year, Egypt’s exports to the U.S. totaled $2.8 billion, with imports from Jordan accounting for an additional $3.9 billion. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest Arab exporter to the United States, sent the U.S. $24.9 billion in goods and services.
Tuesday night, Trump told reporters at his press conference that the U.S. would consider deploying military assets to Gaza to assist with the cleanup effort, but Waltz declined to discuss how large of a footprint that might require Wednesday morning.
“We’re having conversations with the entire region. We have [Netanyahu] here first,” he said. “King Abdullah is coming. We’ve talked to President Sisi. We’re taking in all ideas.”
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Despite the economic uncertainty it might have brought, Trump’s threat to place 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports brought Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to the negotiating table earlier this week.
Both leaders earned a monthlong stay in the tariff implementation by agreeing to surge 10,000 military personnel to their respective borders with the U.S. to help in Trump’s fight against illegal immigration and the fentanyl trade despite previously vowing to reciprocate in kind.
