White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the media was responsible for tanking global markets and leaving tens of millions of everyday Americans fearing for their jobs – not Donald Trump‘s tariffs.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, standing alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, blamed the media for ‘missing the art of the deal’ by talking down how his unprecedented tariff plan would play out.

‘You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact we’ve seen the opposite effect.’

Leavitt’s stunning claim came after the president paused tariffs on 75 countries that are in the process of negotiating a better deal with his administration for 90 days.

His shock U-turn announcement posted to Truth Social immediately caused the markets to start rebounding at over 5 percent and rising.

‘I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately,’ he said about countries who haven’t retaliated.

Trump is increasing tariffs on one country – China – slapping a 120 percent tariff after the nation took retaliatory action against the U.S.

China had announced it will impose 84 percent tariffs on U.S. goods from Thursday, up from the 34 percent previously announced.

Karoline Leavitt claims media missed Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took a swipe at reporters outside the West Wing Wednesday, pushing that President Donald Trump’s wild turnaround on reciprocal tariffs was all part of a plan.

Many of you in the media clearly missed the Art of the Deal. You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here.

Her comments came as she stood alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after Trump reversed course on implementing the tariffs – keeping all tariffs at just 10 percent and pausing the higher reciprocal rates, while raising tariffs on Chinese goods.

The Art of the Deal is the name of Trump’s best-selling 1987 business book.

Both Leavitt and Bessent tried to spin Trump’s move as not one motivated by the stock markets tanking.

Instead, Bessent said claimed that Trump had ‘created maximum negotiation leverage’ by allowing the tariffs to go into effect and then reversing them less than 14 hours later.

‘This was his strategy all along,’ Bessent claimed.

In just five minutes after Trump’s announcement, trillions of dollars were added to the value of U.S. stocks, providing a huge boost to Americans, especially those with investments in 401(k)s and indexes like the Dow.

Wall Street stocks rocketed higher Wednesday after Trump’s pause announcement.

U.S. bond yields had also risen amid a sharp sell-off scaring families across the country.

 Elon Musk posts cryptic message with Pepe the Frog after tariff reversal

DOGE leader Elon Musk posted a cryptic picture of Pepe the Frog, on a gaming consul and dressed in Captain America-like attire on the heels of President Donald Trump reversing course on tariffs.

He shared the animated image with a wink-faced emoji.

Musk had been warring with Trump’s longtime trader adviser Peter Navarro over the planned reciprocal tariffs, which went into effect at 12:01 Wednesday.

With the 90-day pause, and dropping the tariff rate to 10 percent on every country except China, Musk appears to have gotten his way.

 

Trump reveals exactly why he enacted 90-day tariffs pause

President Donald Trump said he put a 90-day pause on his global tariffs because people were ‘getting yippie’ about it.

Stock markets tanked after Trump started his trade war and the president admitted he had been watching.

‘I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippie, you know, getting a little bit yippie, a little bit afraid,’ he said at the White House during an event honoring car racing champions.

Trump reveals exactly why he enacted 90-day tariffs pause
President Donald Trump said he put a 90-day pause on his reciprocal tariffs because people were ‘getting yippie.’

Scott Bessent mulls China’s motivations in retaliating against US tariffs

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed China’s motivations after Beijing retaliated against President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The U.S. escalated things in return, by imposing 125 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, up from the 104 percent that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

‘It’s China’s decision that we have the deficit with them. They sell us almost five times what we sell them. So again, I think it’s an “own goal” by China,’ Bessent said.

He wouldn’t go as far as calling the current back-and-forth with Beijing a ‘trade war’ when a reporter used that term.

‘Well, I’m not calling it a trade war but I’m saying that China has escalated and President Trump responded very courageously to that.’

 

Bessent talks up deals with Asian trading partners

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent talked up the prospect of reaching deals with individual trading partners in the wake of Trump’s stunning tariff turnaround.

With markets already spiking, he said at the White House that South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan had expressed interest in new ‘big LNG project’ in Alaska.

He said he was at the Japanese ambassador to the U.S.’s home last night, where he had a ‘good chat.’

Bessent said he has a meeting with Vietnam today, and hopes things will move in a ‘good direction.’

He described the talks as ‘bespoke,’ after Trump called for tailored negotiations rather than ‘off the rack’ ones.

‘You might even say that he goaded China into a bad position,’ said Bessent.

 

Scott Bessent praises Trump’s ‘courage’ and says countries that didn’t retaliate got rewarded

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House that Trump’s sudden tariff pause benefited more than 75 countries who opted to negotiate rather than hit back at the U.S.

‘It took great courage for him to stay the course until this moment,’ Bessent said of President Trump, whose moves set markets tanking before his sudden turnaround.

He said his message to countries previously had been ‘do not retaliate and you will be rewarded.’

‘Every country in the world that wants to come and negotiate: we are willing to hear you,’ Bessent told U.S. trading partners, while markets rebounded after fears of a new global recession amid a multi-pronged trade war.

Bessent singled out China, that Trump is hitting with a new 125 percent tariff, ‘due to their insistence on escalation.’

00:31

Breaking:Trump announces 90-day pause on his new ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

Amid a global market meltdown, President Trump announced a 90-day pause in his new ‘reciprocal’ tariffs.

He posted Wednesday that he had authorized a ‘substantially lowered’ tariff ‘during this period, of 10 percent, also effective immediately.’ Trump also announced he was boosting the tariffs on China, to 125 percent – with that raised tariff ‘effective immediately.’

That maintained the 10 percent tariff ‘floor,’ while pausing the additional tariffs that were imposed on individual countries.

China hit back against Trump’s tariff earlier with its own tariff of 84%, even as other nations held off and sought to deal with the stunning new barriers through negotiations.

Markets rebounded immediately Wednesday afternoon, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping more than 5 percent in the minutes after Trump posted his comments.

Stocks had taking a beating since Trump announced the tariffs last week, and on Wednesday the bond market was also suffering, as interest rates ticked up.

Trump, who has been dug in for days despite market turmoil and pushback, said he was acting ‘based on the fact that more than 75 Countries’ reached out to negotiate.