Donald Trump’s suspension of most of his violent tariffs regime for 90 days caps a turbulent week for Wall Street and the president by acknowledging that investors and the general public were “being a little yippy, a little afraid.”
On April 7 alone, the S&, P 500 closed down 0.2 % as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9 %, or by 350 points. Thanks to the steelmaker Nvidia, the Nasdaq did finish the day off 0.1 %. Fears of a crisis grew, and Trump’s economy-related poll results decreased. After the taxes were put on hold, the industry began to recover.
Trump hasn’t completely resisted. Most countries may only experience “reciprocal” tariffs, with the rest set to stop. Both the 10 % minimum and steep new tariffs on China will remain in effect, barring another unexpected White House turnaround.  ,
Trump’s taxes didn’t come as a surprise to everyone. He had boldly campaigned on them last month, citing President William McKinley and saying “tariff” was a “beautiful phrase”. Trump imposed tariffs on China that former president Joe Biden generally left in place during his first name. Trump has also negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he has consistently denigrated as a” terrible deal”.
More important, Trump has been an economic separatist complaining about foreign companies and governments ripping off American consumers and businesses since at least the 1980s. Trump’s election as the Republican nominee for president in 2016 was viewed as a significant censure of the party’s decades-long support for free trade.
But Trump’s first-term taxes were more constrained than the ones he imposed in a Rose Garden service he hailed as” Liberation Day”. Prior to the pandemic, when the country invaded and most of the country put in quarantine measures to stop the spread of the virus, his second four years in office were marked by small inflation, lower poverty, and a growing business.  ,
While Trump was out of office, prices exploded to a 41-year great under Biden in 2022. Despite recovering, it remained above the recommended level for the duration of Trump’s presidency and into his second phrase. Importantly, even as the annual rate of inflation slowly cooled, consumers continued to experience the pain of a cumulative 20 % rate increase on many needs.
Trump was elected in large part because of common voter dissatisfaction with prices and the high cost of living. Before entering politics, he had long been regarded as one capable of handling the business. He was a well-known and wealthy business. Most citizens forgave Trump for the COVID-19 lockdowns during his four-year absence from office, which he had initially rejected and eventually refused to support as the year progressed. Surveys suggested they rather related Trump more with the financial problems of 2019, which they wanted to discover restored. In the previous year, the annual inflation rate was 1.81 %, and it dropped even further to 1.23 % in 2020, which was Trump’s last full year in office.
Given all of this, it seemed sensible for voters to think that the Trump administration would prioritize reducing inflation more than reordering global trade. But Trump is lawfully ineligible to get another word in 2028, and Republicans may lose the House as early as the midterm elections next month.
Trump then made a major move. Sometimes, he said,” You have to take medicine to fix something.” As is often the situation when a newly elected president does items that are bigger than the limited authority they received at the ballot box, traders and some voters didn’t review. Bill Ackman, a billionaire who became a major Trump supporter last year, wrote on social media that” This is not what we voted for.”
Many people objected to the nature of the tariffs. The global economy is much more integrated than when McKinley was president. For instance, tariffs on steel could cause prices to rise for U.S.-based steel-using companies. People disliked the uncertainty surrounding their implementation, when they would be effective, and when, which countries and at what rates, which occasionally seemed to be changing.
There were also competing explanations for why the tariffs were being imposed in the first place. Trump undoubtedly wants to reshape some American jobs, lessen trade imbalances, and disentangle the country’s economy from China, though some of this will need to take a long-term. He and his advisers think that the access to the U.S. market depends more on the foreign countries ‘ ability than the other way around, in his and his colleagues ‘ opinion.
But was the goal to raise enough revenue from tariffs to replace the income tax? To convince other nations to lower their trade barriers preventing American businesses and goods? to more quickly obliterate China? While the tariffs could presumably do multiple things at different points in time, it is difficult to see how all these objectives could be reconciled at once.
Many observers were perplexed when the “reciprocal” tariffs appeared to be related to trade deficits with various nations rather than the tariff rates they imposed on the United States. While some argued that this was necessary to achieve more balanced trade, it wasn’t what many in the business world expected when the tariffs were put in place.
More significant than disagreements over Ukraine or the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump tariffs have caused the biggest rifts between political and business leaders, who otherwise support the president strongly. Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have come to appreciate Trump more as a political survivor compared to the first term, are still mostly skeptical of his views on trade. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX ), a frequent supporter of Trump, stated to Fox Business,” I am not a fan of tariffs. If our trading partners raise their tariffs and we end up with high tariffs everywhere, I believe that is a bad thing for America. Tariffs are a tax on consumers, and I am not a fan of jacking up taxes on American consumers”.
Cruz was open-minded about whether Trump’s trade policies would actually result in lower tariffs on the U.S., but that is a far cry from embracing them as a beautiful word.
Although only a few have publicly backed legislation that would reclaim lawmakers ‘ tariff-making authority, many congressional Republicans are also reluctant to accept the idea that one man should have the power to reorganize the world economy. When even more humble presidents have talked about the” New World Order” or the” New Paradigm” in the past, the reaction has often been negative.
On X, commentator Shay Boloor wrote an open letter to Trump, emphasizing” the need for a harder, smarter America-first policy that advocated for fair treatment, reciprocal agreements, and a real industrial strategy rooted in technological superiority, national security, and capital formation.”
He continued,” But that’s not what this is.” ” What you’ve rolled out isn’t detox — it’s whiplash. This is not strategic decoupling, though. It’s scattershot retaliation presented as reform. There’s no roadmap. No useful playbook. No explicit explanation of where this ends or what the success metrics even are.
The tariffs have also brought us a big display of public infighting within the Trump administration, something that was common in the first term but has been relatively rare this time around. It is noteworthy that Elon Musk and top Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro openly disagree on the subject of their competence and intelligence.
Navarro is a prominent public supporter of the notion that the tariffs are not just a negotiating tactic and a trade activist. Others, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, have been more measured on that front. One memorable Bessent quote,” They are negotiable but not a negotiating tactic,” was one of its lines.
On the other hand, the increasingly libertarian Musk has evolved into a elusive Trumpworld advocate for free trade. He has said he hopes the end result is zero tariffs between the U. S. and the major countries of Europe. Musk also has global business interests, which is why some populist nationalists, like Steve Bannon, former chief executive of the Trump White House, have never believed him. Additionally, Musk must consider how the tariff controversy will impact his own lightning portfolio.  ,
Trump has never been more focused on streamlining the federal bureaucracy than he has ever been in regulating trade and making deals. Trump might become less interested in spending political capital on Musk’s DOGE if tariffs become too hot. ” Boys will be boys”, a grinning White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt replied when she was asked about the Musk-Navarro feud.
In any case, Trump has reacted negatively. Countries are still encouraged to negotiate thanks to the 10 % tariffs. And while it may create additional uncertainty, Trump argued that it was important to adapt to changing circumstances.
After the pause, he said to the reporters,” You have to have flexibility.” ” I could say that there is a wall that I will pass through, and I will do it no matter what.” And you keep going and you can’t go through the wall. Sometimes, you have to be able to walk around the wall, around the wall, or over the wall. … I believe the word would have flexibility. You have to be flexible”.
Some people hailed the shift. The president’s vital push to address the failures of the global economy has been greatly strengthened by today’s actions, including doubling down on the 10 % global tariff and temporarily suspending reciprocal tariffs as promising negotiations progress, according to American Compass’s Oren Cass, in a statement. ” In the months to come, those negotiations should focus on the national priorities identified by the administration for a U. S. led economic and security alliance that promotes balanced trade, allocates defense burdens, and excludes China”.
However, the pause hasn’t completely solved all issues. Stocks dropped again the following day, eroding nearly half of the previous gains, despite initial gains. By midday on April 10, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 1, 687 points, or 34.1 %. The Nasdaq Composite decreased by 5.5 % while the S&, P 500 decreased by 4.8 %. Americans ‘ 401( k ) plans were unsure of their security.
TRUMP BETS HIS PRESIDENCY ON TARIFFS ,
Trump is unafraid to reject the notion that he should capitulate or that he should. During a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, he said,” This is the only chance our country will have to reset the table.” ” I could have come in and had an easy term. However, no other president would be able to support or even assist me in doing what I am doing. Because I see the end goal, I don’t care.
Voters who hoped Trump would have an easy term when they decided to reward him with a historic political comeback will now have to strain to see it for themselves.
The Washington Examiner magazine‘s executive editor is W. James Antle III.
