Trump wanted trade deals. Here's how he got them.

After a faltering start to his effort to remake global trade, President Trump wanted deals, and he wanted them quickly.

- Brian Schwartz & Gavin Bade

To deliver for their boss, senior administration officials embarked on an aggressive campaign beginning this spring to pressure trading partners into agreements that would allow Trump to declare victory.

On trips to Europe, a top economic adviser, Stephen Miran, delivered a warning to his counterparts: If they didn't start seriously negotiating and find a way to come to a deal with the U.S., then their countries would face high tariffs. Miran conveyed the message in May to France and Germany, and later in June to officials in Brussels, where the European Union's executive arm is based, according to a senior administration official.

The behind-the-scenes campaign was launched after Trump paused a wave of tariffs he announced in April, according to people familiar with the matter. He had pulled the plug on his large-scale reciprocal tariff plans that were initially announced on "Liberation Day" as global markets faltered. The effort has resulted in a tariff truce with China and deals with some of the country's largest trading partners, including the EU, Japan and South Korea, as well as the highest overall U.S. tariffs since the Great Depression. On Thursday, higher tariffs on nearly 100 nations went into effect.

The private negotiations since the pause were largely led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. All three men used their own methods of trying to set up Trump with trade deals featuring enormous investment promises in the U.S. by trading partners and a range of Trump's beloved tariffs.

"President Trump has assembled the best and most experienced trade and economic team in modern history, and their full-court efforts have delivered one historic trade deal after another to level the playing field for American industries and workers," said White House spokesman Kush Desai.