Trump Announces 90-Day Pause On Tariffs: MI Leaders React

MICHIGAN — President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly backed down on his tariffs on most nations, announcing a 90-day pause for all trading partners except for China, for which he raised the rate to 125 percent.

Global markets surged on the development, but the precise details of Trump's plans to ease tariffs on non-China trade partners were not immediately clear. It was seemingly an attempt to narrow what had been an unprecedented trade war between the U.S. and most of the world to one between the U.S. and China.

Speaking at an event in Washington on Wednesday just hours before Trump announced the pause, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer warned the tariffs could harm the American economy.

"Some days it is negotiable; some days, it’s this percentage or it’s this percentage," she said of the president’s tariffs. "This will have a paralyzing impact on the economy. And if you think that a company or a country is paying that tariff, you’re being misled. It is the consumer that ends up paying the cost, and it is really, it’s a tax."

Trump announced the sweeping new tariffs last week, including a 10 percent tax on imports from all countries and higher tariff rates on dozens more.

The announcement prompted financial turmoil, with business executives warning of a potential recession and big declines in the stock market.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that Trump was pausing the "reciprocal" tariffs on most trading partners, but maintaining his 10 percent tariff on nearly all global imports. Import tariffs on goods from China would surge to 125 percent "effective immediately," Trump said on social media.

After Trump's announcement that he was backing off the tariffs for 90 days, the S&P 500 was up 7.8 percent. It had been down earlier in the morning amid worries about the trade war and potential recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2,476 points, or 6.6 percent, as of 1:35 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 9 percent higher.

"Many of you in the media clearly missed the ‘Art of the Deal,’" White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, in a nod to Trump’s 1987 memoir and advice book. "You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect — the entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets," she added.

While chatting with reporters at the White House Wednesday, the president said he pulled back on some tariffs because some people were getting "yippy" and "afraid."

Meanwhile, during a news conference originally intended to address the stock market plunge, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump "is feeling the heat from Democrats and across America about how bad these tariffs are. He is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing."

The Associated Press contributed reporting. This is a developing story and will be updated.