U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said that President Donald Trump’s unexpected 90-day pause on tariffs Wednesday afternoon was the “strategy all along.”
In a press conference outside the White House following the announcement that Trump would be pausing tariffs for most countries except China — which is now subject to a 125% tariff — Bessent denied that the president’s decision was a reaction to the volatile market.
The secretary said the change was “because of the large number of inbounds.”
He said, “We’ve had more than 75 countries contact us, and I imagine, after today, there will be more.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who held the conference with Bessent, scolded the media present, saying, “Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal,” referencing the president’s book that was published in 1987. “You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here.”
She added, “The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets. They need our consumers, and they need this President in the Oval Office to talk to them.”
U.S. market indexes shot up Wednesday afternoon following the announcement of the tariff pause.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 1,525 points (10%) on the day as of 3:10 p.m. ET. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2,549 points (6.8%), while the S&P climbed 395 points (7.9%).
Trump wrote in a post on his social media site, Truth Social, that the decision to increase the tariffs on China was due to a “lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.”
He wrote, “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”
Additional reporting by Catherine Baab and Kevin Ryan.