The Art of the Retreat

Ask President Donald Trump’s aides and allies, and they’ll tell you that the proclamation that jolted the stock market this afternoon was all part of the president’s grand plan to reset America’s trade imbalance. An aggressive push on tariffs had prompted dozens of countries to come begging Trump for mercy. Once they did, he offered them a 90-day reprieve while escalating the pressure on China. The decision sent the markets into a celebratory frenzy. “This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump,” the financier Bill Ackman cheered, after several days of public panicking. “Textbook, Art of the Deal.”

Yet when reporters asked the president himself what caused him to retreat from his long-promised global trade war, Trump quickly gave away the game. The president borrowed a term from golf parlance for frazzled nerves to acknowledge that he had been hearing from people who were getting “a little yippy.”

Indeed, ominous moves in the bond market overnight rattled the West Wing and pushed the president to ch...
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