LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The European Union is pausing its retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. after some dramatic turns in President Trump's trade policy on Wednesday.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Early in the morning, his steep new tariffs went into effect. Then he told Americans to, quote, "be cool" as markets plunged. But by afternoon, he backed off and put a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs. Markets soared.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Everybody wants to make a deal, actually. And, you know, we want to do what's right for our country. We also want to do what's right for the world.
FADEL: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez was there. He joins us now. Good morning, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So you were at the White House yesterday in the Oval Office. Tell us about this really big day.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, it was a really big day. I mean, for weeks, his team had insisted that Trump was going to hold the line. And just days ago, Trump even wrote on social media - in all capital letters - my policies will never change. And then they did, in another social media post. And this is how Trump explained it at the White House.
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TRUMP: Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know? They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.
ORDOÑEZ: You know, he also talked about concerns in the bond market, and then he downplayed all those concerns. And Trump and his aides began painting this as being part of their strategy all along.
FADEL: So how much of this had to do with the markets? Is this an about-face?
ORDOÑEZ: You know, there's no mistaking the turmoil that the markets were under, and it was getting worse and worse. Top investors were pleading with Trump. Some were almost begging him to do this very thing - issue a 90-day pause. Now, Trump did say you have to be flexible in your policies, but he insisted this was the right thing to do.
FADEL: OK, so what happens now? There's a 90-day pause, and then what?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. I mean, we should be clear that the administration is keeping a baseline 10% tariff on imports.
FADEL: OK.
ORDOÑEZ: Which is a big deal. But it is nothing, nothing like what he was threatening, such as a 46% tariff against Vietnam. Well, so now they've begun these discussions with these countries on what they've described as tailor-made negotiations for each, though we don't really know what that involves. But, you know, his goals on this have always been kind of unclear. They've talked about the tariffs being about reducing the trade deficit. They've talked about the tariffs being about bringing back manufacturing. They've talked about the tariffs being about boosting government revenue. So it's always kind of been this mixed bag.
FADEL: Right. And then, to be clear, the president has spent a lot of time talking about China's trade practices. And again, those tariffs are still there on China. So how does this shift affect the country?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, another really big deal. I mean, while he paused the tariffs on most everyone else, he doubled down on China, raising the tariffs to a hundred and twenty-five percent. He said it was punishment when China announced their own retaliatory tariffs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said China made a mistake and was basically being isolated as a result.
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SCOTT BESSENT: You might even say that he goaded China into a bad position. They responded. They have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors.
ORDOÑEZ: Now, Trump said he did not think he would need to raise the China tariffs any further. And even though he had some very harsh words about China's trade abuses, he actually called Xi Jinping a friend and said he expects Xi to eventually call. And then he says they'll work out a deal. So all of that is something we'll be watching for.
FADEL: That's White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Thank you, Franco.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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