Trump’s Tariff Pause: A Strategic Move from “The Art of the Deal”?

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According to Newsweek (US), the White House described Trump’s temporary suspension of tariffs on April 9 as a shrewd negotiating tactic, rather than a reaction to what critics called “chaos” in the stock and bond markets.

President Donald Trump at the White House on April 9. (Photo: AFP)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the White House that people had failed to see what Trump was doing: "Many of you in the media clearly missed The Art of the Deal," she said, referring to Trump's 1987 book.

"You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China when in fact we've seen the opposite. The entire world is calling the US 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," Leavitt said.

The sweeping tariffs President Trump announced last week were a "negotiating strategy," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested on April 9 as the president announced a 90-day pause on most of those tariffs.

"We saw the successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today, it has brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate," Bessent said.

Bessent said that "every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you, we are going to go down to a 10% baseline tariff for them," he said, speaking outside the White House moments after Trump announced the pause via a Truth Social post.

Fox News contributor Liz Peek, a former partner of Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday: "In his book The Art of the Deal he explains the virtue of leading with an exaggerated demand, which allows for compromise. Presumably, that is what he is doing now.”

On April 10, President Trump announced that he would not extend the 90-day tariff suspension on imports from dozens of trade partners, even if those countries failed to reach agreements with the US. He asserted that the US administration had no intention of granting exemptions to any nation or enterprise and that if desired outcomes were not achieved, previous tariffs would be reinstated.

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