The Trump administration was left red-faced shortly after his letters to world leaders to accept tariff deals were posted by the President on his Truth Social account on Tuesday, where he misgendered one country’s head of state.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump started posting the letters in full, complete with his signature on his Truth Social account. The letters, issued to at least 14 countries so far, stated that tariffs for their respective nations would be reinstated if a trade deal with the US was not negotiated by the deadline of August 1.
The typo that netizens are talking about
Despite correctly referring to Željka Cvijanović, the Chairwoman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as “Her Excellency,” the letter to her began with “Dear Mr President”.
In a rather embarrassing moment, Trump deleted the original post and later shared a corrected letter that began with “Dear Madam President”.
While the corrected version of the letter was posted soon enough, netizens had already spotted the mistake, and shared the blunder online, making the typo hard to miss.
Trump had also posted letters addressed to the letters of Thailand, Cambodia, Serbia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Laos, India, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, and Tunisia.
The Trump tariff war
Trump said on Tuesday that he would not extend an August 1 deadline for higher US tariffs to take effect on dozens of economies, a day after he appeared to signal flexibility on the date, according to an AFP report.
While Trump imposed a sweeping 10 per cent tariff on goods from almost all trading partners in April, higher rates customised to dozens of economies were unveiled, then halted until July 9.
The president this week again delayed their reimposition, pushing it back to August 1.
Trump insisted that there would be no further delay in these steeper tariffs. He added that the levies would start being paid on August 1, in line with letters now being sent out to trading partners.
“No extensions will be granted,” he posted on Truth Social. “There will be no change.” On Monday night, Trump had told reporters at a dinner that the August 1 deadline was “firm, but not 100 per cent firm.”
Pressed on whether the letters marked his final offers, Trump replied: “I would say final – but if they call with a different offer, and I like it, then we’ll do it.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that tariff income could exceed $300 billion by year-end.
The Trump administration is under pressure to show results after promising a flurry of deals following the US president’s tariff threats.
Trump said on Tuesday that Washington was “probably two days off” from sending the European Union a letter setting out the updated tariff rate that the bloc would face, AFP reported.