Trump compares US to a 'big beautiful department store' and says everyone wants a piece of it

• President Donald Trump compared the US to a department store that everyone wants "a piece" of.
• In Oval Office remarks on Thursday, he said trade deals could be concluded in a matter of weeks.
• He said there would be a "little bit of transition" before tariffs are successful.

President Donald Trump compared the US to a "big beautiful department store, before that business was destroyed by the internet."

In Oval Office remarks on Thursday, he said that he felt each country wants "a piece of that store."

"China wants it, Japan wants it, Mexico, Canada — they live off it, those two, without us, they wouldn't have a country," he added.

Trump was responding to questions from reporters about US trade deals with other countries.

Asked how much time he thought the US needed to make deals, Trump said, "I would think over the next 3 to 4 weeks."

"I think maybe the whole thing could be concluded" by then, he said.

But Trump said that, at a certain point, if a deal isn't made, a tariff will just be set and the country or the market may find the tariff rate too high.

"They'll come back and say, 'Well, we think this is too high, and we'll negotiate,' or they're going to say something else, they're going to say, 'Let's see what happens,'" Trump said.

Trump's recent tariff announcements have roiled global markets and affected relationships between the US and other countries worldwide.

Trump said any country has the right to decide not to shop in the "store of America" in order to avoid the tariffs, but that "we have something that nobody else has, and that's the American consumer."

In his remarks on Thursday, Trump also said that he may not raise tariffs on China if it goes beyond the 125% duty it currently has on American goods.

"At a certain point, I don't want them to go higher because at a certain point, you make it where people don't buy," he said.