The past fortnight saw another series of rear and reverse lanes of the White House in tariffs.
The story goes basically like this.
On April 2, 2025, nicknamed US government liberation day, Donald Trump announced a 10% global initial rate on almost all US imports, with rates that rose a few more days later to many countries. Qualified imports from Canada and Mexico were exempt, as well as for some strange reason, all imports from Russia and North Korea.
Base line fares would begin on April 5 and the highest rates on April 9.
The tariffs affected almost all. Even remote islands, home of only penguins and other native flora and fauna suddenly found that exports, even if there were no more, would cost in America.
China was hit with a 34%rate.
The deputy president of the defect, Elon Musk, did not make the decision as well as affect his commercial interests, strongly dependent on China.
Apparently, Musk made personal appeals to Trump to reverse the tariffs. He then criticized Peter Navarro, Trump’s commercial consultant and one of the tariff architects, questioning his educational qualifications and said, “He was not built.” Navarro replied by saying that Musk was not a “car manufacturer”. Musk replied that Navarro was “an idiot” and “darker than a brick bag”.
This year’s White House Christmas party should be an interesting event.
Then there was a wholesale race of nations seeking access to the White House trying to ensure better terms of commerce.
On April 9, Trump announced a 90 -day retention in all rates of 10% base rates, except in China, where the rate would be increased to an eye eye of 134% or 104% or 124%. Different figures seemed to be floated at different times. No one seemed to know exactly what was happening.
The decision was clearly rushed. From Guardian:
Trump announced his decision to abruptly pause tariffs over 10% in dozens of countries during a congressional hearing with Jamieson Greer, his US commercial representative.
“It looks like your boss has just pulled the bottom of you,” said Democratic representative Steven Horsford of Nevada, said Greer. “This is the amateur time and needs to stop.”
And Trump’s justification for his face is somewhat amazing. Again from Guardian:
When asked later about the reason for his decision, Trump told reporters, “Well, I thought people were jumping a little out of line.”
“They were getting tasty, you know, they were getting a little urgent, a little fear,” Trump said at the White House.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett claimed reporters that Trump always intended to wage the comprehensive tariffs the president announced last week.
“This was your strategy all the time,” Bessent said in the White House, where the authorities, including him, denied days that the tariffs would be suspended.
Then, among the golf games, Trump announced that China’s smartphones and computers would be exempt from the 125% imposed rates. And that would be retrospective and the credits would be paid.
A threatened almost bending the cost of an iPhone was obviously not tolerable. But save a thought to Apple who had arranged 600 tons of India’s 600 tons of iPhones.
And the Chinese directed the US from US -made chips, exempting US manufacturer’s computer chips if the country of manufacture were not the United States. Taiwan and South Korea were obviously relieved.
What caused the United States to get involved in reversals of such dramatic and chaotic policies?
There is this intriguing theory represented by Dean Blundell that the first -Canadian minister and former Comercant Mark Carnery organized with other world leaders a sale of US securities and caused an increase in securities cost, threatening significant interest rates increase as well as inflationary rates of tariffs.
From your post:
Let’s talk about the moment Donald Trump blinked. It was not tall. It was not a tweet storm or a speech. When the tariff threats that had the world at the limit – 125% in China, 25% in Canada cars, a global trade war in manufacturing – softened. A “pause”, he called. A complete turnaround of the shock on last week’s chest. And the reason? Mark Meatary is a slow and deliberate financial maneuver that most people have not even noticed: the title of the coordinated Treasury slow bleeding.
This was not about bravata. It was about leverage. Cold, calculated and devastatingly effective.
Trump’s break was not because people were getting yippy …
There seems to be some evidence of support from the Blundell claim.
US titles prices are recently hunted. And you would think that in times of intense economic turbulence of US government titles, they would represent a safe haven for investors.
Of course, the alternative is that Trump is so frightening to rational investors that they are avoiding US investments. With everything he did, you can understand why investors would be worried.
I hope we see an unusual coalition formed in the United States, consisting of large companies, the rich, unions, environmental human rights organizations and people dedicated to dealing with poverty and showing tolerance to everyone, no matter where they are. They all realize that they are being governed by a clown and to prevent their country from being ruined.
And very well the rest of the world will be cheering.
