"Trump pulls back from the brink of a full-scale global trade war."

For several days, Donald Trump and his White House team stood firm on their commitment to impose sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs on dozens of countries. They even dismissed a report on Tuesday suggesting the president was considering a 90-day delay—a story that briefly sent the stock market climbing.

Yet now, that delay in higher tariff rates—aside from a few notable exceptions—has become reality. The anticipated overhaul of the global economic order is on hold, and Trump’s vision of a new golden age for American manufacturing has been pushed further down the road.

According to the White House, the plan from the beginning was to take a bold stance on tariffs and then pause before entering negotiations with individual nations.

“We’ve had more than 75 countries reach out to us, and I expect, after today, that number will grow,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters shortly after the announcement.

That narrative from the White House comes as no surprise. Still, it’s hard to overlook the mounting investor anxiety, declining bond market, rising Republican dissent, and growing public disapproval that came before the shift.

So, was this a calculated retreat in response to stronger-than-expected opposition—or just another example of Trump’s signature “art of the deal” negotiating playbook in action?

It didn’t take long for Trump’s aides—many of whom had insisted he would never back down—to quickly pivot and praise the president’s latest move.

Trade adviser Peter Navarro declared that the tariff strategy had “unfolded exactly the way it should.”

“You clearly don’t understand what President Trump is doing here,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt to a group of reporters. “The entire world is calling the United States of America.”

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However, despite the confident messaging, the details of Trump’s tariff suspension—announced through a post on his Truth Social account—were initially murky. Was the European Union included in the reprieve? Were Mexico and Canada, which had previously been spared from the original 10% baseline tariffs, now affected? Were specific industries or sectors excluded?

Eventually, the White House offered some clarification. But for several hours, U.S. trading partners were left parsing Trump’s social media post and interpreting fragmentary responses from officials during hurried press gaggles. 

On Wednesday afternoon, Trump acknowledged that the markets had looked “pretty glum” and that “people were getting a little queasy” — a rare moment of candor that contrasted with the bravado he had projected in recent days and hinted at a deeper motive behind his shift on tariffs.

Earlier that same day, he had taken to Truth Social to urge Americans to “BE COOL!” and reassured them that “everything is going to work out.” Just two days prior, on Monday, he lashed out at critics he called “panicans” — a group he described as “weak and stupid people” who lacked the patience to see his strategy through.

But ultimately, it was Trump who made the sudden pivot.

Still, he insisted the tariff announcement was necessary, arguing that any economic turbulence was merely exposing a long-standing "sickness" festering within the American economy.

Democrats, unsurprisingly, offered a starkly different take. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of “governing by chaos.”

“He’s reeling, he’s retreating—and that’s a good thing,” Schumer said.

In the end, the motivations behind Trump’s decision may matter less than the outcome. The U.S. is now taking a softer stance—at least for now—toward nations previously in its crosshairs, despite the fact that Trump’s across-the-board 10% tariff, on its own, would have dominated headlines just weeks ago.

That shift was enough to spark a stock market rebound. At the same time, Trump has escalated his trade offensive against China, slapping Beijing with 125% tariffs—an aggressive move likely to carry significant global economic consequences.

Yet that approach aligns more closely with recent U.S. foreign policy, including efforts under Democratic President Joe Biden, aimed at curbing China's growing global influence.

The lingering question is whether Trump’s erratic moves—rattling allies and disrupting global economic expectations—have undermined the very strategy he now seems to embrace.

And in 90 days, when the tariff pause expires, the economic uncertainty and diplomatic drama of this week could return in full force.