Trump explains trade war suspension with the world
Photo: Donald Trump (Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump's sudden decision to change the course of his tariff policy "came from the heart" and without consulting lawyers, Politico reports.
On April 9, Trump unexpectedly announced in a post on Truth Social that the United States would eliminate so-called retaliatory tariffs on its largest trading partners and instead levy only 10% tariffs.
"Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it," Trump mused in the Oval Office. "I think it probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning."
Trump added: "Just wrote it up, I didn’t — we didn’t have the use of — we didn’t have access to lawyers … We wrote it up from our hearts, right? It was written from the heart, and I think it was well written too."
Trump wrote his Truth Social post with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to Lutnick.
Treasury Secretary's version
Bessent disputed the suggestion that Trump's abandonment of the trade war, which has devalued global markets by trillions of dollars in less than a week, was an acknowledgment of the chaos he created.
"No, President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself," Bessent said.
According to him, they saw a successful negotiation strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today, and it attracted more than 75 countries to the talks. Bessent said that Trump took a lot of courage to stay the course to this point.
"So every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you," he added.
However, Trump denied this in his subsequent comments. "The bond market is tricky," Trump said. "I saw last night, where people were getting a little queasy."
In announcing the tariffs, Trump increased tariffs against China to 125%. This was based, as he wrote, "on the lack of respect that China has shown for global markets."
US President Donald Trump's stunning decision to suspend the huge tariffs he had just imposed on dozens of countries sent global stock markets soaring, although he had started a trade war with China.
US stock indices rose amid the news, with the benchmark S&P 500 index closing up 9.5%.
