President Trump’s letter-writing mission to convince world leaders to accept his tariff trade deals has hit an early snag after he misgendered one country’s head of state.
On Sunday, Trump revealed his administration would send out around a dozen warning letters this week, stating that tariffs for their respective countries would be reinstated if a trade deal with the U.S. was not negotiated by the deadline of August 1.
On his Truth Social account on Monday, Trump started posting the letters in full, complete with his familiar scrawled signature.
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It didn’t go quite to plan. Despite correctly referring to Željka Cvijanović, the Chairwoman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina as “Her Excellency,” the letter to her begins with “Dear Mr President.”
The post was later replaced with a letter that began “Dear Madam President.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Cvijanović has had prior dealings with the United States. Two years ago, she was one of four Bosnian Serb officials to have sanctions imposed against them for undermining a U.S. peace deal brokered to end the Balkan war in the 1990s. The war saw 100,000 people killed and the country split into two autonomous regions.
In 2022, Cvijanović also had sanctions imposed by the U.K. for attempting to undermine the legitimacy and functionality of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On Monday, Trump was asked about his April promise of making 90 trade deals in 90 days after the roll out of “reciprocal tariffs” was delayed from an initial date of July 9 to August 1. So far, deals have only been struck with the United Kingdom and Vietnam, and a preliminary accord with China.
Trump’s backflipping on tariff agreements has seen him earn the nickname TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out.
Trump said, “We’re going to have much more than 90, but most of those are going to be sent a letter... We’re sending out letters to various countries, telling them how much tariffs they have to pay. Some will maybe adjust a little bit, depending if they have a, you know, cause we’re not going to be unfair about it.”
He added, “And actually, it’s a small fraction compared to what we should be getting. We could be asking for a much more, but for the sake of relationships that we’ve had with a lot of really good countries, we’re doing the way I do it, but we could be getting a lot, we could ask for a lot more than what we’re asking for.”
On Monday Trump posted letters sent to leaders of Thailand, Cambodia, Belgrade, Serbia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Laos, India, Kazakhstan, Myanmar and Tunisia.
U.S. stock markets plunged on Monday after the president posted the letters online, with the Dow dropping more than 500 points.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called letters to Japan and South Korea “beautiful” in a briefing on Monday.
The letters state, “If you wish to open your heretofore closed Trading Markets to the United States, and eliminate your Tariff, and Non Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter. These Tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country.”
They end with the line, “You will never be disappointed with The United States of America.”
