Summary
Donald Trump abruptly reversed his tariff policy Wednesday, announcing a return to a 10% baseline tariff on most countries and a steep 125% rate on China.
His administration appeared blindsided, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unable to explain the move and press secretary Karoline Leavitt resorting to combative rhetoric.
The shift likely responds to mounting criticism from conservative allies and market instability marked by a debt sell-off.
Despite confusion and lack of clarity, officials tried to play up Trump’s unpredictability as strategic leverage rather than a sign of disarray.
Make no mistake, he wasnt making this up as he went along, he knew exactly what he was doing the entire time. The basic outline was in place - announce tariffs, make them really big, get everybody crazy, crash the market, buy options on the decrease, buy stocks at the bottom, and ride them up on the delirious news that the tariffs have been suspended.
He may have improvised the real-time details like a jazz player, but the basic chord progression was always chugging along in the background.
This is his 3rd round of this, with each increasingly larger. This one threatened to boil over, so he kicked it down the road 90 days, but he is pathologically incapable of resisting his greed, so he probably won’t wait that long.