Donald Trump’s White House had grandly promised “90 deals in 90 days” after partially pausing the process of levying what the US president called “reciprocal” tariffs.
In reality, there won’t even be nine deals done by the time we reach Trump’s first cut-off date on 9 July.
The revealing thing here, the poker “tell” if you like, is the extension of the deadline from Wednesday until 1 August, with a possibility of further extensions - or delays - to come.
That’s the game everyone is playing. Just stall and run out the clock. There’s no point in working on a deal, because he’ll break it the moment it’s convenient.
Put up a show of negotiating with the US, and work more with other countries. The public in the US seems to forget that the rest of the world are not NPCs in their own internal struggle.