How Trump flip-flopped on pausing tariffs | Donald Trump

In a reversal of the plan he defended for days, United States President Donald Trump delayed almost all of the country-by-country tariffs he unveiled on April 2.

For two days, Trump and the White House denied that he was considering a pause in the tariff plan shaking global markets.

During an April 7 Oval Office event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a reporter asked Trump, “Would you be open to a pause in tariffs to allow for negotiation?”

“Well, we’re not looking at that,” Trump said. “We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and they’re going to be fair deals. And in certain cases, they’re going to be paying substantial tariffs. They’ll be fair deals.”

On April 9 – hours after he told everyone to “BE COOL!” – Trump changed course. “I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

He made an exception for China, raising its tariff to 125 percent.

What are tariffs?

Tariffs are a tax on imported goods that businesses pay. Their cost is often passed on to consumers through higher prices.

The Trump administration has said that by raising revenue through tariffs, other federal taxes could be cut. However, economists have said it’s unlikely high tariffs could generate enough revenue to result in meaningful tax reductions for typical Americans.

What did Trump and the White House initially say about pausing tariffs?

On the morning of April 7, X accounts amplified a significant exaggeration of a noncommittal response from National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett responding to the possibility of a 90-day tariff pause. CNBC anchors repeated the unconfirmed information and later aired a correction.

Trump on April 7 shared a clip of Fox News host Maria Bartiromo saying earlier that morning, “Rates are plummeting, oil prices are plummeting, deregulation is happening. … President Trump is not going to bend.”

The White House held Trump’s line; its “Rapid Response 47” X account said reports that Trump was expected to issue a 90-day pause were “fake news”. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNBC the same thing.

During an April 8 White House media briefing, a reporter asked Leavitt if Trump was considering holding off on imposing some tariffs or reversing them due to negotiations with other countries.

“The president was asked and answered this yesterday,” Leavitt said. “He said he is not considering an extension or delay. I spoke to him before this briefing, that was not his mindset. He expects that these tariffs are going to go into effect.”

The US stock market experienced tumultuous days and losses amid Trump’s announced tariffs.

How did Trump explain his changed position?

Trump’s Truth Social announcement about a pause for most tariffs came shortly after 1pm ET on April 9. He said more than 75 countries had called federal officials to negotiate a solution and had not retaliated, except for China.

A few hours later at an event with auto racers, a reporter asked Trump to explain his thinking. Trump said: “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.”

Responding to another question about the pause, Trump said, “I think in financial markets, because they change. Look how much it changed today. We went from, you know, pretty moderate today, but over the last few days, it looked pretty glum to, I guess they say it was the biggest day in financial history.”

Even after the 9.5 percent increase in the S&P 500 market index on April 9, the metric was still down nearly 11 percent since its peak under Trump on February 19, wiping away all gains since early September 2024, under both Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden.

A reporter noted how Trump went from no pause to a pause in two days.

Trump said: “You have to have flexibility. I could say, here’s a wall and I’m gonna go through that wall. I’m gonna go through it no matter what. Keep going and you can’t go through the wall. Sometimes you have to be able to go under the wall, around the wall, or over the wall. These guys know that better than anybody, right? You got to go around them sometimes, you’re not gonna go through them.”

Trump said he was thinking about a pause “over the last few days” as he was talking with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “I think it probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning, just wrote it up,” Trump said.

*Loreben Tuquero, Madison Czopek and Louis Jacobson contributed to this fact check.*