According to the Washington Post, three people familiar with the matter revealed that White House officials distributed key points of internal conversations and told agents that Trump's new global tariff plan should not be seen as the starting point for negotiations. As the world is trying to understand Trump’s huge new import tax, the government’s internal instructions said advisers should describe the tariffs as a response to a national emergency rather than the basis for potential new trade negotiations, people familiar with the matter said. In addition to the key points of the conversation, Trump himself told his advisers that tariffs were not intended to establish negotiations, two people familiar with the matter said.