President Trump said on Sunday that he would not reverse tariffs on other nations unless the trade deficits that the United States runs with China, the European Union and other nations disappeared.

His comments indicated that the steep import taxes that have panicked global businesses and investors would be in place for the long run.

“Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “And unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal.” He added that he was “willing to deal with China, but they have to solve their surplus.”

Mr. Trump’s comments came just hours after his top aides raced to defend the president’s expansive global tariffs, which sent global markets into a tailspin last week. As Mr. Trump departed his Mar-a-Lago estate for another day of golfing at his club in Jupiter, Fla., his leading economic advisers dismissed the turmoil the tariffs have unleashed in financial markets around the world, insisting that the president’s trade war would ultimately improve the nation’s economic fortunes.

But they also sent mixed signals over the extent to which Mr. Trump sees tariffs as a negotiating tool, even as many of his aides said on Sunday that they had heard from more than 50 nations looking to find a way out of the tariffs.

“The tariffs are coming. Of course they are,” Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

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