Article originally in the Financial Times. Other articles .
Was it Jamie Dimon or the bond market?
Donald Trump was playing with the markets for a week to play first. On Wednesday, however, the commercial war on several fronts, which was launched with the big fanfare on April 2, became economically, financially and politically unsustainable for the US President.
Trump suddenly retreated from the strictest duties he set for American business partners-with the exception of China-and declared a 90-day break to give the markets time to breathe and space for negotiations.
Pause from the heart
This 180 -degree turnover was a serious step back for the President who claimed to “libe” Americans from an unfair global trading system, which he said he was the only courage to change.
His decision to retreat, at least partially, is a sign that Trump is still easy to influence the reactions of investors, legislators and donors – even in one of his key political promises.
Trump said he thought about the pause ‘the last few days’, and this step was born “early [v stredu] he canceled the duties in the morning. “I thought people were a little overtaking events. They became nervous.” He finally added that the pause “was written from the heart”.
“I think it has shown that it pays attention to the markets and that he is aware of when he went too far. I think it is a plus for protective barriers: the market still has power and cannot be intimidated,” said Dec Mullarkey, head of SLC management company.
Golf played over the weekend
Until Sunday, even after two brutal sales on American stock markets, Trump promised to stick to his hard line. The President spent most of the weekend in Florida playing golf and set a very high bar for interviews with concerned business partners. He rejected the shocks on the market as a swing.
However, voltage began to be manifested.
The Republicans from the chapter who support Trump in almost everything suddenly began to express themselves critically. Democrats, who could not find an effective line of attack, were amazed at the political gift that Trump gave them a trade war that would harm voters throughout the United States.
The rebellion against Trump’s ultraprotectionism by investors and some of its rich supporters in the American business, including the technology billionaire and the leading advisor of the White House Elon Musk, has taken turns.
Trump started to adapt on Monday. He launched business negotiations with Japan and South Korea and commissioned the management of negotiations with the business partners of the Finance Minister Scott Bessent, who is considered the most trusted of the President’s representatives on Wall Street.
Did not want the whole house to collapse
It seems that aggressive business skeptic Peter Navarro, who wrote for the Financial Times commentary in which he warned business partners that Trump does not deal with – just at the time when Bessent claimed that he was doing exactly – he lost part of the influence.
Trump said that when he was considering a break, he talked about it with Bessent and the Minister of Commerce Howard Lutnicka, not mentioning Navarra.
But only when the crisis on the market has spread this week to the sale of US state debt, which forced economists, such as former Finance Minister Lawrence Summers to warn against the financial crisis, Trump actually retreated and suspended most of the additional duties of the “Day of Liberation Day”.
“Trump doesn’t mind that Wall Street gets hit, but he doesn’t want the whole house to collapse,” said one person close to the White House.
A man whose business career as a developer was characterized by the use of debt has seen warning signals on the US bond market. “The bond market is very treacherous, I watched it … It was a bit sick to people,” Trump said, explaining its change on Wednesday.
He also said he was convinced by the interview that the head of the bank JPMorgan Jamie Dimon provided for Fox Business. He warned that the United States was likely to be directed to recession. “I chose a peaceful position, but I think it could get worse if we don’t make any progress here,” Dimon said.
Finance Minister: We are willing to listen to you
White house officials tried to portray this colossal change as part of Trump’s big plan.
Bessent said on Wednesday afternoon in a speech in front of the White House that he spent part of Sunday with Trump in Florida, and described the events of the past week as a reflection of the President’s “strategy all the time”.
“He brought more than 75 countries to negotiations. It required great courage, great courage to stay on the course until the moment, and it ended here,” Bessent said, adding that America will now be involved in the “good faith” negotiations. “We are willing to listen to you.”
A few days earlier, Bessent, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, welcomed Trump’s customs plans and indicated that they would help the United States make the global market a fairer, reindustrialize and solve “huge distribution problems” in their economy.
However, one of the managers of Wall Street nearby White House said that Bessent helped Trump to conclude that the United States should suspend increasing tariffs to countries with historically good relationships with America and limit his toughest punishments only to Beijing.
Democrats: Chaos in 90 days will not disappear
Business groups were relieved, but stated that convulsions about Trump’s policy direction were not alleged. They pointed out that 10 % duties for most countries remain in force, the United States escalated the trade war with China, the second largest economy of the world, and potential duties for specific sectors such as cars and medicines remain unclear.
“Although this temporary break can alleviate immediate pain, it does not reduce the uncertainty that criphes the commercial, supply and investment calculations of companies,” said the President of the National Council for Foreign Trade, a lobbying group in Washington Jake Colvin.
“We call on the government to continue de -escalation and to determine permanent ways to remove these duties, restore confidence and minimize future uncertainty towards our economic partners,” he added.
Despite the abolition of duties, the Democrats continued to pound the president. “Chaos, uncertainty and real damage caused by Trump’s customs tax will not disappear in 90 days. This is essential: the President created a global mess at the expense of American families and businesses,” said Senator as Illinois Dick Durbin.
Will Schmitt cooperated in New York on the article
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