“The big money will start coming in on Aug. 1, I think that was made clear today,” Trump told reporters. He then turned to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who estimated that the United States could collect more than $300 billion in tariff revenue by the end of the year, compared to about $100 billion in the first half.

Trump said it was possible that more deals could be announced with individual countries or trading partners, but that his preferred approach was to unilaterally pick a tariff rate to impose on a country and then notify them in a letter, as he did with Japan, South Korea and 12 other countries Monday.

Trump seemed to indicate that the closely watched negotiations with the European Union could go either way.

“They’re very tough, but now they’re being very nice to us, and we’ll see what happens. We’re probably two days off from sending them a letter,” Trump said. “We are talking to them.”

Trump then insisted that unilaterally informing a country of its tariff rate in a letter “means a deal,” because it’s often too “complicated” to actually negotiate an agreement with them.

Back in April, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs ranging up to 50 percent on nearly 60 trading partners, but then delayed them from going into effect until July 9 to give countries time to negotiate new trade agreements to avoid the tariffs.

However, when asked by a reporter during the Cabinet about his decision to extend the tariff implementation date until Aug. 1, Trump insisted that had always been the deadline.

“It’s always been Aug. 1. That’s all, paying it. A statement was being put out today, and I put it out just to make it clear. It wasn’t a change. It was Aug. 1,” Trump said, despite having to sign a new executive order Monday to extend the July 9 deadline.

Trump has repeatedly set tariff deadlines in his global trade war over the last several months, only to walk them back at the last minute.

Trump even told reporters Monday that the Aug. 1 deadline was “firm, but not 100 percent firm.”

“Because if they call up and say ‘we’d like to do it a different way,’ I’d be open to that,” he said.

The Trump administration has started to send out letters to trading partners — which were also posted to Truth Social — Monday, where Trump also offered to “consider an adjustment.”

“These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country,” he wrote in the letter. “You will never be disappointed with the United States of America.”

The White House sent 14 nations tariff letters on Monday. Trump indicated more countries will receive letters in the coming days and threatened higher tariffs for any nation that implemented retaliatory tariffs.