Trump: I Paused Tariffs Because People Were 'Yippy'

President Trump said Wednesday that he paused most of his "reciprocal" tariffs on other countries because people were getting "yippy" and "afraid." The president said he had been watching the bond market, where there has been a major sell-off, and he thought people were "getting a little queasy," the AP reports. He said that he expects to reach trade deals with most countries, but "nothing's over yet."

• Leavitt says tariffs will be held at 10%: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the tariff rate would be brought down to a universal 10%, a major reduction from the level imposed on imports from many countries in "Liberation Day" tariffs that took effect early Wednesday, the New York Times reports. She spoke to reporters after Trump posted about the pause on Truth Social and stocks soared. Trump said more than 75 countries had called to seek trade deals—but tariffs on imports from China, which brought in retaliatory tariffs, would be raised to 125%.

• "Bespoke" trade deals: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump would negotiate "bespoke" trade deals with other countries. He said this has been the president's strategy "all along," the Washington Post reports. "You might even say he goaded China into a bad position—they have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors," Bessent said.
• 'WTF. Who's in charge?' Trump's announcement came as US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was testifying in front of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Wall Street Journal reports. After Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford asked him if he knew about the pause, Greer said he found out about it a few minutes earlier. "WTF. Who's in charge?" Horsford asked. He told Greer: "This is amateur hour. It needs to stop. How are you in charge of negotiations if the president is tweeting about this from wherever the hell he is?"
• 'He is reeling, he is retreating': Trump "is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference moments after Trump's announcement, the Hill reports. Schumer said he would keep pressure on Trump despite the pullback. "This is chaos. This is government by chaos. He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisers are fighting among themselves, calling each other names," Schumer said. "And you cannot run a country with such chaos."

• Market swings could continue: Stocks jumped on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq up more than 11% in the afternoon, the S&P 500 up almost 10%, and the Dow up 8%, but investors are worried that volatility will continue. "The tariff clouds parted for the first time today, but it's too soon to know how sunny the skies will be tomorrow—or 90 days from now," said Daniel Skelly at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, per the Times. "As welcome as the announcement was, investors can't assume it's the end of the tariff story, or that the market's day-to-day volatility will disappear."
• 'Pause' could be permanent: "Our working assumption now will be that, cowed by the market response, Trump will repeatedly extend the 'pause' meaning that this will end up looking a lot like the 10% universal tariff that he campaigned on," Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, said Wednesday, per the Journal. "In return, other countries will offer minor concessions on their own tariffs and trade practices."

(More tariffs stories.)