Inside Trump’s reversal on tariffs: from ‘be cool!’ to ‘getting yippy’

Tyler Pager - The Irish Times - 10/04
How the US president rolled back his tariff plan

For the past week, US president Donald Trump has been urging calm in the face of the financial chaos that he created and resisting calls for him to rethink his approach.

“I know what the hell I’m doing,” he told Republicans on Tuesday as the massive tariffs he had imposed sent global markets into a tailspin. “BE COOL!” he said in a social media post Wednesday morning. “Everything is going to work out well.”

At 9:37 a.m. on Wednesday, the president was still bullish on his policy, posting on Truth Social: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

But in the end, it was the markets that got him to reverse course.

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China move is latest escalation in tariff war

The economic turmoil, particularly a rapid rise in government bond yields, caused Trump to blink Wednesday afternoon and pause his “reciprocal” tariffs for most countries for the next 90 days, according to four people with direct knowledge of the president’s decision.

Asked to explain the decision, Trump told reporters: “Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, right, and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent depart after speaking to reporters about President Donald Trump’s decision to pause his reciprocal tariffs for most countries for the next 90 days outside the White House in Washington, on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. Photograph: Eric Lee/The New York Times

Behind the scenes

Behind the scenes, senior members of Trump’s team had feared a financial panic that could spiral out of control and potentially devastate the economy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others on the president’s team, including vice president JD Vance, had been pushing for a more structured approach to the trade conflict that would focus on isolating China as the worst actor while still sending a broader message that Trump was serious about cracking down on trade imbalances.

After his reversal on social media, Trump’s team was put in th...
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