Was Jamie Dimon or Bond Market?
Donald Trump played chicken with markets for a week. But by Wednesday, the multi -front trade war began in the world on April 2 with much fanaticism had become economically, financially and politically unstable for the US president.
In a sudden action, Trump left the steepest tariffs he had set on US trading partners-excluding China-declaring a 90-day pause in taxes to give the markets time to breathe and leave room for negotiations.
The turn was represented a clear obstacle to a president who said he was “liberating” Americans from what he claimed was an unfair global trading system he, he suggested, had only the courage to reorganize.
His decision to cave, at least in part, is a sign that Trump is still sensitive to a reaction from investors, lawmakers and donors – even in one of his promises of signature policy.
Trump said he had thought about the pause for the “last days”, with this action to gather “early (Wednesday) in the morning.”
He turned the fees because people were “getting … a little fear,” he said. “I thought people were jumping a little off the line. They were getting yippie.”
After all, the pause “was written from the heart,” he added.
“I think this has proven that he pays attention to the markets and that he understands when he has gone too far. I think this is a plus for the guards: the market still has power and cannot be scared,” said Dec Mullarey, SLC leader, a manager of assets.
Until Sunday, even after two brutal sales in the US capital markets, Trump had pledged to maintain his difficult line. The president spent most of the weekend in Florida playing Golf and imposed a very high bar for talks with alarmed trade partners. He performed the market riots as a blow.
But the species were starting to tell.
Capitol Hill Republicans who support Trump in almost everything were expressing criticism. Democrats who had fought to find an effective line of wonders attack with the political gift Trump had submitted with a trade war that would hurt voters throughout the US.
The revolt against Trump’s ultra-Protectism from investors and some of his rich supporters in American business, including Elon Musk, billionaire of technology and a high White House adviser, gathered Steam.
By Monday, Trump had begun to fix. He began trade talks with Japan and South Korea and placed the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, regarded in Wall Street as more reliable by the president’s lieutenant, responsible for negotiations with trading partners.
The aggressive skeptic of the trade Peter Navarro, who wrote part of the Times financial opinion by warning of trade partners that Trump was not negotiating – as Bessent said he was doing exactly – seemed to have an impact.
Trump said that while weighing the pause, he spoke it with Bessent and Lutnick, not mentioning Navarro.
But it did not happen until the market crisis extended to a sale in US government debt this week, making economists such as former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers warn of a financial crisis that Trump really withdrawn, stopping most of the “Liberation Day” fees.
“Trump is fine with Wall Street taking a hit, but he doesn’t want the whole house to go down,” said one person near the White House.
One man whose business career as an asset developer was characterized by setting the debt without signs of warning in the US bond market.
“The bond market is very complicated, I was watching it. People were getting a little more,” Trump said as he explained his shift on Wednesday.
He also said he had been convinced by an interview that JPMORGAN’s chief executive, Dimon, made at Fox Business, where he warned that the US was probably going to a recession.
“I’m getting a quiet look, but I think it can get worse if we don’t make any progress here,” Dimon said.
The White House officials tried to portray Trump’s colossal shift as part of a grand plan.
Speaking outside the White House on Wednesday afternoon, Bessent said he had spent a part of Sunday with Trump in Florida and described last week’s events as a reflection of the “President’s strategy”.
“She has brought more than 75 places ahead to negotiate. It took a lot of courage, great courage for him to stay on the course until the moment, and she ended up here,” Bessent said, adding that America would now engage in “trust” talks. “We’re ready to hear you.”
The day before, Bessent had welcomed Trump’s tariff plans in an interview with Tucker Carlson, suggesting that they would help the US make the global market fairer and address the “mass distribution problems” in its economy.
But a Wall Street executive near the White House said Bessent had helped Trump come to the conclusion that the US should stop raising tariffs in countries with historically good links with the US and limiting its toughest punishment with Beijing.
Business groups were facilitated, but said convulsions about Trump’s policy route had not been removed. 10 percent tariffs in most countries remained in the country, they pointed out, the US had escalated its commercial struggle with China, the world’s second largest economy, and possible taxes on special sectors such as cars and pharmaceuticals remained unclear.
“While this temporary pause can reduce immediate pain, it does not reduce the uncertainty that is paralyzing trade, helping and calculating company investments,” said Jake Colvin, President of the National Council of Foreign Trade, a lobbying group in Washington.
“We encourage the administration to continue to escalate and identify the sustainable paths ahead to eliminate these tasks, rebuild confidence and minimize future insecurity with our economic partners,” he added.
Democrats continued to hit the president, despite his return.
“The chaos, the uncertainty and the real damage to the Trump tariff tax will not disappear in 90 days. After all: the president has created a global mess at the expense of US families and businesses,” Dick Durbin, Senator of Illinois, said in a statement.
Additional reporting from Will Schmitt to New York
