Summary
Donald Trump abruptly reversed his tariff policy Wednesday, announcing a return to a 10% baseline tariff on most countries and a steep 125% rate on China.
His administration appeared blindsided, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unable to explain the move and press secretary Karoline Leavitt resorting to combative rhetoric.
The shift likely responds to mounting criticism from conservative allies and market instability marked by a debt sell-off.
Despite confusion and lack of clarity, officials tried to play up Trump’s unpredictability as strategic leverage rather than a sign of disarray.
The response will take a long time to come into focus, but make no mistake, this incident will do long-term damage to America’s standing in the world. No other country trusts us about anything any more.
Many in our country are stupid enough to delude themselves about HitlerPig, but foreign governments aren’t buying it one bit. They have intelligence agencies, too, and they know that he is not only an unrepentant and even enthusiastic traitor to his own country, he is a traitor to the entire Democratic Free World.
The worse he gets, the less the rest of the world will want to work with our government in any way. Eventually, we are likely to get hit with crippling international sanctions.
But he’ll be using all of it to enrich himself and his friends, so he won’t care at all.
Of course. He didn’t even say he’s cancelling the tariffs, this is a “pause”, so other countries are still going to continue with their plans to make alternative trade agreements outside of the US.