Donald Trump famously tweeted that "trade wars are good, and easy to win". But investors "think otherwise" – and Trump has now "decided maybe investors are right", said The Wall Street Journal.
Faced with a sell-off in US government debt, Trump has announced a 90-day pause on most tariffs for every country, except China. And, in doing so, he has "acknowledged, however reluctantly, the harsh realities of economics, foreign policy and domestic politics", said The Washington Post.
What did the commentators say?
Everything is going completely to plan, says the White House, claiming that this is simply another example of Trump's "art of the deal" negotiating strategy.
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Trade adviser Peter Navarro said Trump's tariff situation "unfolded exactly the way it should". And press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that they "clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here: the entire world is calling the United States of America".
But it is not a coincidence that Trump's U-turn came exactly when the market crisis extended to US government bonds, said the Financial Times. A man "whose business career as a property developer was characterised by deploying debt saw the warning signs in the US bond market".
"Trump is fine with Wall Street taking a hit but he doesn't want the whole house to come down," one person close to the White House told the newspaper.
"The bond rout was scary," said The Wall Street Journal but it was also "accompanied by a decline in the dollar" against other currencies. And the "fire sale" on both the dollar and bonds "sent a warning about a loss of confidence in Washington". Trump's "reckless trade policies" has got other governments so worried that "Tokyo is talking about a global effort to bolster financial stability". Normally, the US would lead this kind of effort "but, this time, the turmoil is caused by the US".
Everyone from "investors to diplomats had settled on the profoundly unsettling conclusion" that the president was not for turning in his crusade to try "to remake the global trading system, heedless of the economic and financial consequences", said The Economist. "That belief, as much as the tariffs themselves, was driving global markets into a tailspin." With his sudden reversal, Trump "has revealed that he is not, in fact, completely impervious to the fallout from his trade policies".
Trump may also have realised that America needs allies to counter China. His administration appeared to believe, "foolishly, that Trump could cut deals" with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to take on Beijing, said The Washington Post. But Trump's "unexpectedly aggressive levies against allies, including an irrational 46% tariff on Vietnam, spooked these countries". And, within the US, Trump has "failed to build political consensus" to remake the economy: his approval rating has fallen five percentage points in two weeks, according to an Economist/YouGov poll, with 80% of Americans expecting the tariffs to raise prices at the tills.
What next?
There is "no grand plan or strategic vision", whatever Trump's advisers claim – "only the impulsive actions of a mad king, untethered from any responsibility to the nation or its people", said Jamelle Bouie in The New York Times. Trump "apparently cannot conceive of any relationship between individuals, peoples or states as anything other than a status game – a competition for dominance". His "desire to dominate others is the driving psychological force of his administration".
The 90-day pause will only last until 8 July, and the trade war with China could continue to escalate. "In other words, investors, business and consumers will still be living with uncertainty," said The Washington Post.
"Never bet against America, it's said, and normally global investors don't want to", said The Wall Street Journal. "It's a sign of the magnitude of Trump's tariff mistake that he's goading them into doing so."
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