All the Backpedaling, Spinning, and Mental Gymnastics Behind Trump's "Genius" Tariff Turnaround [View all]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-tariffs-spin



Donald Trump was playing chess, not checkers. Welcome to the art of the deal, folks. A master strategy! Chef’s kiss! The MAGA world’s reviews are rolling in for Trump’s massive tariff take-back, and they’re positively ecstatic. This, team Trump smugly insists, was the “strategy all along.” Except that all evidence is pointing to the contrary. Even the president didn’t stick to the party line. On Wednesday, as global markets descended into free fall, the president announced a 90-day pause on his so-called “reciprocal” global tariffs, while keeping his 125% tariffs on China in place.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Explaining why, Trump said he made the call after watching the bond markets overnight. “I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy,” he told reporters. According to The New York Times, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Vice President J.D. Vance were among the top officials trying to convince the president to take a more measured approach to his tariff plan behind the scenes. Even before the tariffs took effect at midnight Wednesday, Bessent was lobbying Trump to begin looking for an “endgame,” another source told Politico. But Trump dug in his heels, refusing to budge until after it became clear that the market was about to descend into all-out panic.

The White House’s claims that this was all part of Trump’s grand plan are also inconsistent with their defense of his posting spree on Truth Social. After all, what exactly was he doing when he told his Truth Social followers that it was a “great time to buy” Wednesday morning, just hours before reversing course on his tariff plan, sending markets soaring? Democrats in Congress are already calling for investigations into alleged market manipulation. “Trump's 9:30am tweet makes it clear he was eager for his people to make money off the private info only he knew,” Connecticut senator Chris Murphy posted on X. In a statement to NBC News, a White House spokesperson dismissed the allegation. “It is the responsibility of the President of the United States to reassure the markets and Americans about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering,” spokesman Kush Desai said.

Link to tweet

The Trump administration is trying to have it both ways—insisting both that this was the president’s plan all along and that, as of Wednesday morning, he was just as blind as the rest of us as to what was coming next. At the very least, it says a whole lot about this White House that Trump’s team would rather insist they were all engaged in some Machiavellian plot to terrify the world into submission than admit that this president can sometimes be swayed by reason and overwhelming public backlash. As any strongman knows, admitting that may be the riskiest move of all.

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