By David Goldman, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned that even more tariffs could be coming as soon as next week: This time China was his target, as Trump threatened to unleash a wave of higher taxes on imports from America’s second-biggest trading partner.

In an Oval Office press conference that echoed similar off-the-cuff remarks on Monday, Trump said that he is considering a 10% across-the-board tariff on all Chinese goods starting as early as February 1. On Monday, Trump threatened 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada but deflected on China, noting that former President Joe Biden left in place extensive tariffs that Trump imposed during his first administration.

It’s unclear what prompted such a rapid change in Trump’s tariff policy, although he had promised as much as a 60% tariff on all goods imported from China during his campaign. Trump said Tuesday that too much fentanyl is coming into the United States from China via Mexico and Canada and that the threat of tariffs could get China to crack down on the deadly drug.

“I had that talk with President Xi the other day too, of China. I said, we don’t want that crap in our country. We got to stop it,” Trump said. “We’re talking about a tariff of 10% on China based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada.”

Trump reiterated Tuesday a common refrain that in his first term he had a deal in place with Xi in which China agreed to impose the death penalty on drug dealers caught funneling drugs into the United States, but he said Biden failed to follow up on the proposal. Trump didn’t explicitly demand China execute convicted drug dealers as a condition of avoiding tariffs.

On Monday, Trump issued an executive action that directed the secretaries of commerce and the Treasury and the United States Trade Representative to investigate the causes of America’s trade deficits with foreign nations, to determine how to build an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs, to identify unfair trade practices and to review existing trade agreements for potential improvements. It also calls for a review of the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (the USMCA) signed by Trump in his first term and requires agencies to assess whether stricter US trade policy could successfully restrict the flow of fentanyl and the flow of undocumented migrants into the United States.

But the action did not specifically call for an increase in tariffs. As a candidate, Trump proposed sweeping and across-the-board tariffs: up to 20% on imports from all countries, with a 25% tax on goods from Mexico and Canada, plus a 60% tariff on goods from China. He also pledged to use tariffs as a negotiating tool on other countries, including, for example, Denmark — putting pressure on the European nation to give control of Greenland to the United States. (He also did not rule out using the military to take Greenland.)

The delay made investors happy Tuesday, sending the Dow more than 500 points higher. Wall Street is generally opposed to tariffs, because American importers pay the tariffs at the ports, passing those costs along to businesses and consumers. They can be inflationary – a particularly worrying notion considering America is still feeling the effects of the inflation crisis from the past few years.

Various factions of Trump’s economic team have been working to decide the best way to roll out tariffs.

Market-minded officials like Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, and Kevin Hassett, his pick to lead the National Economic Council, have advocated for a softer approach. Tariff champions such as Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, and Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick to lead the Commerce Department, have argued the full bore is needed to send the message Trump wants.

Trump has been calling allies on Capitol Hill to shore up support for tariffs. Although the specific policy has yet to be decided, Trump could be putting his thumb on the scale with these off-the-cuff announcements.

CNN’s Kayla Tausche contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.