WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the U.S. will revert to steep country-by-country tariff rates at the beginning of August, weeks after the tariff rate pause is set to expire.

“President Trump’s going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don’t move things along, then on Aug. 1, you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,” Bessent said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “So I think we’re going to see a lot of deals very quickly.”

President Donald Trump had originally set a 90-day deadline — set to expire Wednesday — for countries to renegotiate the eye-watering tariff levels he laid out in his April 2 “Liberation Day” speech. He paused those rates a week later, while setting a new 90-day deadline to renegotiate them.

That deadline was set to expire Wednesday.

CNN host Dana Bash responded to Bessent on Sunday, saying, “There’s basically a new deadline,” prompting Bessent to push back.

“It’s not a new deadline. We are saying this is when it’s happening,” Bessent said. “If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to go back to the old rate, that’s your choice.”

On Friday, Trump, too, referred to an Aug. 1 deadline, raising questions about whether the July 9 deadline still stands. A White House spokesperson did not provide a comment when asked to clarify whether the April 2 tariff rates would resume July 9 or Aug. 1.

The president has recently given shifting descriptions of how firm the July 9 deadline is, saying at the end of June, “We can extend it, we can shorten it,” only to double down on it several days later, saying he was not thinking about extending it.

Shortly after midnight Friday, Trump referred to an Aug. 1 timeline, telling reporters that the April 2 tariff rates would resume at the start of August.

Asked whether the U.S. would be flexible with any countries about on the July 9 deadline, Trump said, “Not really.”

“They’ll start to pay on Aug. 1,” he added. “The money will start to come into the United States on Aug. 1, OK, in pretty much all cases.”

Trump said Friday that the administration would start sending letters to countries, adding, “I think by the 9th they’ll be fully covered.”

“They’ll range in value from maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs, but they’re going to be starting to go out sometime tomorrow,” Trump said overnight on Friday. “We’ve done the final form, and it’s basically going to explain what the countries are going to be paying in tariffs.”

Trump said in a Truth Social post late Sunday evening that tariff letters would be delivered starting at noon on Monday.

Bessent also said Sunday that “many of these countries never even contacted us.”

Tariffs are paid by importers — which can pass on part or all of the costs to consumers — and not necessarily by entities in the goods’ country of origin.

The White House had initially projected confidence that dozens of countries would try to make deals. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in April that “we’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here.” Late last month, Trump said, “Everybody wants to make a deal,” and after he announced sweeping tariffs on April 2, he said countries were “calling us up, kissing my a–.”

“They are,” he said in April. “They are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything.’”

The renewed uncertainty is likely to further upset markets, where stock futures went lower Friday after Trump mentioned the country letters. Stocks have returned to all-time highs in part due to the lull in tariff news.

So far, Trump has imposed higher import duties on autos and auto parts, steel and aluminum, and goods from China and Vietnam.

With two days until the official launch, more details have leaked about the trio of foldable phones Samsung is about to reveal. The latest leak details the screens, storage, batteries, and other core specs of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and new Z Flip 7 FE.

The new information comes from WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, who claims to have obtained official Samsung promotional materials for the new phones, which will be officially revealed at a Galaxy Unpacked event this Wednesday, July 9th.

The Fold 7 is expected to be substantially thinner than its predecessors, and Quandt quotes marketing materials that say it will measure 4.2mm thick when unfolded, and 8.9mm folded. That would make it the same thickness as the Oppo Find N5, and just 0.1mm thicker than Honor’s Magic V5, though at 216g it would actually be the lightest book-style foldable phone yet.

It cuts the weight despite having bigger screens than the Fold 6 — 6.5 inches on the outside, and 8 inches on the inside — and squeezing in the exact same battery capacity of 4,400mAh. As expected it’ll be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, with either 256GB or 512GB of storage. This may vary by market however, as in a previous post Quandt reported on a 1TB version of the Fold 7, in line with what it offers for the current Fold 6. The only camera detail listed is a resolution of 200 megapixels, presumably for the main camera, and it will apparently launch in blue, black, and silver.

The smaller Flip 7 is just as interesting. Quandt claims that it will have a substantially larger 4.1-inch cover screen, sharing an image that shows this will wrap right around the two camera lenses, just like on Motorola’s recent Razr flip phones. That design appeared over the weekend in an alleged hands-on video of the new Z Flip, and has been seen in renders since March.

The Flip 7 is also tipped to be substantially thinner than older models despite its bigger 4,300mAh battery, only a little smaller than the Fold 7’s. Storage options and colors are the same as the bigger phone too, though the Flip sticks to a 50-megapixel main camera.

Quandt also has a few details on the long-rumored Z Flip 7 FE, expected to be a cheaper take on the flip phone. It drops to 128GB and 256GB storage, along with a smaller 4,000mAh battery. It has the same screen sizes as the main Flip 7, suggesting that it too will use the wrap-around cover display design, though that contradicts earlier reports that it will reuse the Flip 6’s design. It’s apparently only launching in black and white versions.