{"id":49207,"date":"2025-04-09T15:52:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T20:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/?p=49207"},"modified":"2025-04-10T10:23:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T15:23:30","slug":"trumps-tariff-twist-from-fake-news-to-90-day-pause-in-48-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/trumps-tariff-twist-from-fake-news-to-90-day-pause-in-48-hours\/49207\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Tariff Twist: From \u201cFake News\u201d to 90-Day Pause in 48 Hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stockIn a plot twist that could give even the most seasoned soap opera writer whiplash, President Donald Trump has pulled a stunning about-face on his tariff strategy. Just two days after the White House dismissed reports of a 90-day tariff pause as \u201cfake news,\u201d Trump announced on April 9, 2025, that he\u2019s doing exactly that\u2014pausing \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs for 90 days on over 75 countries, while jacking up duties on China to a whopping 125%. The sudden reversal has left markets soaring, critics cackling, and everyone else wondering if Trump\u2019s playing 4D chess or just winging it.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s rewind. On April 7, a Reuters headline claiming Trump was mulling a 90-day tariff timeout sent stocks on a brief joyride before the White House swooped in to squash it. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it \u201cfake news\u201d on CNN, and Trump himself denied it, sticking to his guns about reordering the global economy with his April 2 tariff blitz\u201410% baseline levies on 180+ countries, plus higher \u201creciprocal\u201d rates like 34% on China and 20% on Europe. The markets tanked, shedding trillions as China clapped back with 84% duties and the EU approved retaliation. Cue chaos: the Dow dropped over 2,200 points in two days, and Goldman Sachs slashed its 2025 GDP forecast to a grim 0.5%.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to April 9, and Trump\u2019s singing a different tune. In a Truth Social post, he declared, \u201cI have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately,\u201d citing calls from \u201cmore than 75 Countries\u201d eager to negotiate. China, however, gets no such breather\u2014Trump hiked its tariffs to 125%, blaming their \u201clack of respect\u201d for world markets. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, he shrugged off the flip-flop, saying, \u201cPeople were getting a little bit afraid,\u201d as if he hadn\u2019t spent the last week insisting fear was for losers.<\/p>\n

The markets ate it up. The Nasdaq shot up 12%\u2014its biggest one-day gain since 2001\u2014while the S&P 500<\/a> and Dow clawed back losses. X lit up with reactions: @StockRetail tied the rally to Trump\u2019s pause, while @hissgoescobra snarked that he\u2019d \u201crefuted himself 10 ways to Sunday.\u201d Wall Street strategists, like Interactive Brokers\u2019 Steve Sosnick, called it a \u201csurprise\u201d after the administration\u2019s hardline stance, per The Telegraph. Even billionaire Bill Ackman, who\u2019d begged for a 90-day breather hours earlier on X, must be smirking\u2014though it\u2019s unclear if his plea tipped the scales or just predicted the inevitable.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the game here? Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insists it\u2019s all part of Trump\u2019s \u201cstrategy,\u201d telling CBS News the pause lets Trump \u201cpersonally\u201d negotiate deals. Critics, though, see a president buckling under pressure from allies like Elon Musk and a market meltdown too ugly to ignore. Either way, this 90-day window\u2014excluding China\u2014buys time, but with global retaliation still simmering, it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess if Trump\u2019s tariff tango ends in triumph or more turmoil. For now, the \u201cfake news\u201d is real, and the world\u2019s watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a plot twist that could give even the most seasoned soap opera writer whiplash, President Donald Trump has pulled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":49208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}