#TariffsPause Trump says he will pause tariff hikes for 90 days,

but not for ChinaPresident Trump abruptly announced on Wednesday that he would pause big hikes on tariffs for most countries for 90 days, except for China.Most countries will be left with 10% tariffs on their exports to the United States, while China — which had retaliated against Trump's moves — will now face tariffs of 125%.

The whipsawing of Trump's tariff policies has weighed heavily on financial markets, and Trump told reporters that those moves — especially in the bond market — had factored into his decision.

"Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know. They're getting a little bit … afraid," Trump told reporters at an unrelated event at the White House with race car drivers and team owners.His decision, announced on social media in the middle of the trading day, caused stock prices to soar.

Earlier, in a hastily arranged gaggle with reporters outside the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted that the market chaos caused by Trump's hefty tariffs was not the reason for the policy shift.

"This was driven by the president's strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along," Bessent told reporters.

Trump defended his about-face on tariffs as a sign of his flexibility. "You have to have flexibility. I could say, 'Here's a wall, and I'm going to go through that wall. I'm going to go through it no matter what,'" Trump said. "Sometimes you have to be able to go under the wall, around the wall or over the wall."

Bessent said Trump's steep "reciprocal tariffs" had brought more than 75 countries to seek deals with the United States, and he said that the White House would pursue "bespoke" arrangements with each of them in the coming weeks.

"It is going to take some time, and President Trump wants to be personally involved. So that's why we're getting the 90-day pause," he said.