Analysis

Trump pauses tariffs on everyone except China. Fixing a mistake, or the ‘Art of the Deal’?

Restoring balance to an economic model of debt was always going to spook those heavily invested in it. We shall see whether this was an artful deal in the long term interests of Americans.
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on February 26, 2025 in Washington, DC.Getty Images

Frank
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Frank Wright
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(LifeSiteNews) — Financial markets in the United States and worldwide posted record highs following President Donald Trump’s Wednesday announcement that his controversial tariffs will be “paused” for 90 days – except for those on China.

The move sees a baseline 10 percent tariff remain in place on all U.S. trade imports, with China’s tariff rising from 84 percent to 125 percent. Higher tariffs on 75 “friendly” countries willing to negotiate have been suspended for the present – according to the White House.

Have the markets spooked Trump – who warned against becoming a “PANICAN” on April 7 as stocks and bonds went deep red?

Trump signaled a change in the economic weather hours before his move to reduce most tariffs:

Again on April 9 he reassured Americans, “Just be cool, it’s gonna work out – and it’s working out.”

U.S. stocks leapt “$4 trillion in 10 minutes” following Trump’s announcement.

So did Trump “cave” – like an idiot? Or is this a “textbook example” of the “Art of the Deal,” as billionaire Bill Ackman says?

Noticing patterns has been coded negatively under the liberal utopian agenda – but there is a pattern here.

Trump routinely begins with maximum demands – or threats – which are reduced following negotiation.

READ: Trump says tariffs are making US $2 billion a day despite globalist opposition

He has supported tariffs long before he became president, as his remarks from the 1980s show:

“I believe very strongly in tariffs,” said Trump, as the New York Times recorded, because “America is being ripped off.”

As president in 2018 Trump applied tariffs on Canada and Mexico, rescinding them following negotiations. Most of the tariffs he placed on China, India, and the EU remained in place under Joe Biden – who collected more money from them than Trump did in his term.

As Politico reported in 2024, Trump’s tariffs were sneered at, much like today. No such response followed Biden’s continuation of the policy:

Back in 2018, lawmakers of both parties greeted President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on Chinese imports with widespread derision.

Six years later, most members of Congress are applauding President Joe Biden’s extension – and in some cases, expansion – of those tariffs, if not calling for him to go even further.

Trump has now gone further, applying tariffs of 125 percent on Chinese trade with the U.S. Why? As one Fox News report says, “Trump is organizing a global embargo of China.”

Why? Trump said on his Truth Social that China has effectively cornered the global market.

Though this fact has been considerably realized by the actions of past U.S. presidents, such as Bill Clinton’s policy of “offshoring” American industry to China, Trump sees the result as another “rip-off”:

“China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”

White House aide Stephen Miller, a staunch ally of Trump, has predictably come out strongly in defense of the move.

In addition to the exceptional Chinese tariff, placed also in response to retaliatory Chinese tariffs on the U.S., Trump keeps a blanket 10 percent tariff in place on U.S. imports from all other countries.

The president has once again been accused of being an idiot, his behavior described as that of a “bull in a china shop” by the UK commentator Andrew Neil – who once sagely demanded governments “punish the unvaccinated.”

Many others have suggested Trump is insane, or has “caved” into pressure following panic in the stock and bond markets which followed his recent announcement of near-global tariffs.

This is a rationale which relies on the belief that Donald Trump – a lifelong financial deal-maker – had no idea that the markets would react to his tariff policy and did not anticipate it.

Economic vandalism?

Some, such as the UK’s Matt Goodwin, have pointed out that “much criticism of Trump’s tariffs is coming from the same people who very nearly destroyed the global economy in 2008.”

Another economic wrecking ball endorsed by Trump critics was cited by Mike Cernovich – that of the COVID regime and its lockdowns:

As LifeSiteNews reported, far from being a random act of economic vandalism, Trump’s tariff policy has followed that recommended in a book on “balanced trade” – almost to the letter.

READ: Globalists are freaking out over Trump’s tariff plan: here’s why

The goal of balanced trade

The Richman brothers’ 2014 book Balanced Trade: Ending the Unbearable Costs of America’s Trade Deficits even recommends a baseline tariff of 10 percent on U.S. imports – exactly what Trump’s initial and habitual maximalism has settled on.

Even his opening maximal demands were an example of the “scaled tariffs” prescribed in the book, to correct with “reciprocal trade” what the authors call “the problem of imbalanced trade” which worsens U.S. debt.

The outcry about the moves to balance America’s trade, and therefore reverse its decline into debt, can also be explained by the Richmans’ rationale: the “political system” and the Federal Reserve are all heavily invested in promoting the debt model.

Stocks, bonds recover

U.S. stocks and bond markets rallied after Trump announced the 90 day pause, with the Nasdaq, Dow Jones, and Japan’s Nikkei posting record rises.

Bonds matter, as their yields are signs of confidence in the U.S. economy. Government bonds are sold to finance borrowing, and if they are sold off in great volume – as in recent days – the cost of refinancing government debt rises.

Trump’s administration must refinance $9 trillion in debt this year, as around a quarter of the $36 trillion in U.S. national debt matures, requiring new repayment structures. Panic in the bond markets would likely see a rise in interest rates from the Federal Reserve, meaning any revenue from tariffs would be diminished or even wiped out by the increased cost of servicing the national debt.

Whether the bond markets spooked Trump or not, it is very unlikely he failed to foresee the shock his therapy delivered to the world of finance.

What is the result?

After the pattern of maximum threat towards negotiation, what remains? The markets now see a near-universal baseline tariff of 10 percent as acceptable, can anticipate the return of tariffs in the (very unlikely) event that affected nations refuse to do a deal, and Trump has moved to isolate America’s rival China.

Immediately prior to this move, lifelong warmonger John Bolton described Trump’s tariffs as “economic illiteracy.” In a sign of his now being forever behind the times, he told the polished homosexualist Anderson Cooper that the “real antagonist to world trade” was China.

Why are the tariffs on China so high? The fact that Trump secured a trade deal with China in 2019, following another “trade war” using tariffs, may help to explain this.

China broke the terms of the deal – a fact presented in 2021 as a “failure of Trump’s China trade strategy” by globalist magazine The Economist.

Having once brought the Chinese to the negotiating table with much lower tariffs, Trump appears to be applying the same tactic with maximum pressure this time, to secure what he called in 2020 “a momentous step … toward a future of fair and reciprocal trade with China.”

The Chinese responded with a statement on Wednesday. Whilst stressing that tariffs will not solve this dispute, saying it is “willing to communicate” on trade issues, and that “it is natural for China and the US to have differences and frictions in their economic and trade cooperation.”

Restoring balance to an economic model of debt and destruction was always going to spook those heavily invested in it. In the coming months, we shall see whether or not this was an artful deal in the long term interests of Americans.

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