Kate Linebaugh and Molly Ball go behind the scenes of the administration’s tariff pause. We dive deep with WSJ’s Josh Dawsey, exploring the tension in the days after the announcement and what really changed the president’s mind. Plus, your questions! Further Listening: - China Unleashes a Trade War Arsenal - The Tariff Trade Off: Jobs vs. Higher Prices - Wall Street Speaks Out Against Tariffs Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Hi, Molly. Hey, Kate. I know you're not surprised to see me here, but I'm here for Ryan.
Yeah, I was hoping you'd do like a Ryan impression, you know, like maybe you can like talk about basketball and I could be confused. And the Ducks. Yes, definitely some Oregon references. Got to get that in here.
But we're not going to do that. Anyway, great to have you. How are you doing? I'm doing just fine. I'm a little bit exhausted from the tariff roller coaster of the last week. It's been a lot. Indeed. Since so-called Liberation Day, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs, the markets tanked. And then on Wednesday, Trump put in place a 90-day pause. And the stock market shot up. That's right.
So, Molly, what does this mean for Trump? Politically, how is it playing out?
Not great. We've now had several polls come out since Liberation Day. All of these polls are showing that his approval rating on the economy specifically has tanked. It's underwater. The tariffs are not popular by big double digit margins, 20, 30 points with all kinds of voters. So, yeah, it's not going great. And is that why the pause button was hit? Well, we're going to talk about that.
It seems to have had less to do with the politics than with the markets. That seems to have been what finally scared him straight.
From The Journal, this is Trump 2.0. I'm Kate Linebaugh. And I'm Molly Ball. It's Friday, April 11th. Coming up, we'll break down the weakened tariffs and go behind the scenes at the White House. So, Molly, last week, Trump announced these sweeping tariffs and seemed to be sticking to his guns until Wednesday, when in a post on Truth Social, he announces this pause. Were you surprised?
I mean, you know me. I try never to be surprised by anything Trump does. He had repeatedly said that he, like you said, was going to ride this out, was going to stick to his guns, didn't mind the pain, didn't care what was happening in the economy and the markets. But we were hearing this rising tide of angst from people around him and people in the Republican Party.
So it wasn't too surprising that he did decide to change course. But if there's anything that's predictable about Trump, it's unpredictability.
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