President Donald Trump shared on Truth Social April 8 that he has “authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%.” Trump also raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that the pause was not a result of the brutal selloffs in the financial markets but rather because other countries are seeking negotiations. About an hour later, Trump told reporters that he pulled back on many tariffs because people were getting “yippy” and “afraid.”
Trump’s ‘buy’ tip on social media before his tariffs pause made money for investors who listened.
When Trump offered some financial advice on April 8, stocks were wavering between gains and losses. That was about to change.
“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT,” he posted online at 9:37 a.m. Wednesday.
Less than four hours later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on nearly all his tariffs. Stocks soared, closing up 9.5%. The market, measured by the S&P 500, gained back about $4 trillion, or 70%, of the value it lost over the previous four trading days.
“He’s loving this, this control over markets, but he better be careful,” said Trump critic and former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter, noting that securities law prohibits trading on insider information or helping others do so. “The people who bought when they saw that post made a lot of money.”
Trump gives muddled answer on when he decided to pause tariffs
On Wednesday, when asked by a reporter about when he arrived at the decision to pause the tariffs on most countries for 90 days, Trump gave a muddled answer.
“For a period of time. I would say this morning. Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it,” the president said. He added, “Fairly early this morning.”
Earlier in the day, before announcing the pause, Trump on social media urged people to “BE COOL” and said, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
After members of his administration gave conflicting answers in recent days about whether the tariff hikes were a negotiating ploy, Trump said Wednesday, “A lot of times it’s not a negotiation until it is.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was in the Oval Office with Trump, said the European Union did not face further retaliatory tariffs like China did because the tariffs that the bloc announced Wednesday do not take effect immediately.
“I’m glad that they held back” Trump said.
The US and China are locked in a faceoff over tariffs — no one wants to blink first.
The tariff fight between the world’s two largest economies spiraled into greater peril this week as President Donald Trump tried to narrow his global trade war into a direct — and risky — faceoff with Beijing.
As Trump reversed his larger “reciprocal” tariffs on most of the world in the face of recession fears, he nonetheless hiked his tariffs on China once again — to 125%. The move locks the strategic rivals into a deepening standoff that endangers both their economies and interests around the world. The stakes are higher than ever, as the U.S. and China are already embroiled in competition on everything from artificial intelligence to monetary policy to overall global influence.
Each nation dares the other to blink first. But the rounds of escalation are raising concerns that the window for diplomacy has narrowed even further, while the economic pain on both economies intensifies.
Trump says he doesn’t expect to increase tariffs on China again
Trump told reporters at the White House that he “can’t imagine” he would need to increase tariffs on China again to get them to the negotiating table.
“We calculated it very carefully,” the president said.
Mexico and Canada still face tariffs of up to 25%
Despite President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause limiting tariffs, imports from Mexico and Canada will still get taxed by as much as 25%.
That’s according to a White House backgrounder. Unlike the tariffs that Trump temporarily took down to 10% to give time for negotiations, the taxes on the United States’ two largest trading partners are a separate matter. Mexico and Canada are being tariffed ostensibly to stop fentanyl smuggling and illegal immigration.
The backgrounder contradicted an earlier statement by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said Mexico and Canada would also be tariffed at 10%.
‘Brilliantly executed’: Pundit who called mass tariffs unsuccessful reverses course
The whipsaw-like nature of Wednesday could be seen in the social media posts of Bill Ackman, a hedge fund billionaire and Trump supporter.
“Our stock market is down,” Ackman posted on the social platform X. “Bond yields are up and the dollar is declining. These are not the markers of successful policy.”
Ackman repeated in the post his call for a 90-day pause. When Trump embraced that idea several hours later, an ebullient Ackman posted that Trump had “brilliantly executed” his plan and it was “Textbook, Art of the Deal,” a reference to Trump’s bestselling 1987 book.
Senate Democratic Leader calls Trump’s tariff strategy ‘chaos’
“He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisors are fighting among themselves, calling each other names, and you cannot run a country with such chaos,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer at a news conference that had originally been scheduled to call attention to the stock market plunge.
Schumer added that the danger from Trump’s tariffs had not passed and attributed his backing down to the reaction from across the country.
“Donald Trump is feeling the heat from Democrats and across America about how bad these tariffs are,” Schumer said. “He is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing.”
Poll: Voters anticipated short-term harm to the US economy from Trump’s tariffs
About 7 in 10 voters believed that Trump imposing tariffs on dozens of countries was going to hurt the U.S. economy in the short-term, according to a Quinnipiac Poll conducted before the president announced a 90-day pause on most of those tariffs.
But there was less consensus that the long-term impact would be negative.
About half of voters believed the tariffs would hurt the U.S. economy in the long term.
Republican voters were about evenly divided on whether the tariffs would help or hurt the U.S. economy in the short term: 46% said they would help, and 44% said they would cause short-term pain.
Almost all Democrats and about three-quarters of independents believed the tariffs would harm the economy in the short term.
Senate Republicans cheer Trump’s tariffs announcement
GOP senators were attending a luncheon when Sen. Roger Marshall stood up and announced that Trump was backing down on most tariffs.
The room responded with applause, some cheers and relief, said senators who were in the meeting.
“It really lightened up the lunch discussion,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, adding that there were “a lot of smiles.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said he was relieved by the announcement and “we all would rather see the market rise than fall.”
Republicans in recent days have become louder with their concerns that Trump’s sweeping tariffs would harm the economy.
In the Senate, they have pushed the White House to negotiate trade deals rather than double down on the tariffs.
White House says Trump demonstrated ‘Art of Deal’ as he suspends some tariffs
“Many of you in the media clearly missed the ‘Art of the Deal,’” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, in a nod to the Trump’s 1987 memoir and advice book.
“You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect — the entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets,” she added.
Treasury secretary says markets ‘didn’t understand’ Trump’s tariff strategy
“The market didn’t understand, those were maximum levels. The countries can think about those levels as they come to us to bring down their tariffs, their non-trade barriers,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House.
He said Trump “created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” and the Chinese have “shown themselves to the world as the bad actors.”
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