Former President Donald Trump said his surprise decision to pause sweeping new tariffs—excluding those on Chinese imports—was the result of several days of reflection and last-minute discussions with key officials.
The Big Picture:
Trump’s announcement came just as the tariffs were set to take effect on Wednesday. The plan suspends most of the new duties, keeping only a baseline 10% tariff in place for now—except for Chinese imports, which saw levies jump to 125%. The move took many in the Republican party by surprise.
According to Trump, the final decision “probably came together early this morning” following a conversation with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Lutnick later posted on X, stating that he and Bessent “sat with the President while he wrote one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his Presidency” to announce the pause.
Zoom In:
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump emphasized the personal nature of the statement.
“We just wrote it up,” he said. “No lawyers. We wrote it from our hearts. It was written from the heart—and I think it was well written, too.”
Trump explained the reasoning behind the pause: “We don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt. They all want to negotiate. The only issue is, you can only handle so many at once.”
He added, “We want to get it right. We want to help them, but we also have to take care of our country. This has been in discussion for some time, and we finally decided to pull the trigger today—and we’re happy we did.”
