One individual swiftly emerged as the public face of the decision in the tumultuous minutes following the surprise reversal of US President Donald Trump’s administration’s policy and the suspension of dozens of broad “reciprocal” tariffs: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. It took great courage,” the 62-year-old former hedge fund manager, surrounded by hundreds of media on April 9, said. “Great courage to stay the course until this moment.
The other two individuals who were supposed to convey Trump’s tariff message to the American people, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade advisor Pete Navarro, were conspicuously absent from the press conference, which caused markets to soar.
Even though most players support Trump’s economic agenda, some trade policy experts have argued that Bessent’s prominent role in the tariff announcement illustrates how changing power dynamics within the White House saved the US from the verge of a full-scale global trade war. Former National Foreign Trade Council chief William Alan Reinsch told the BBC, “He’s playing the good cop. Navarro and Lutnick also act like rotten cops.
The president has only stated that he had been “thinking about it” for a “few days” before it “came together” early on the morning of April 9. The White House has been largely silent on the events that culminated in Trump’s market-shaking decision to pause reciprocal tariffs for most countries while raising levies on China.
However, US media sources claim that Bessent, who was flooded with calls from corporate executives, was crucial in influencing Trump. This included talks in the Oval Office on the morning of the decision and on Air Force One the weekend before.
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