Trump pauses reciprocal tariffs, but hikes duties on China to 125%

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is pausing his tariffs regime for 90 days on 75 trading partners who did not retaliate in the hours after it went into effect.

In a post on X just before 1:30 p.m., Trump wrote the move was based on the fact that these countries had called in to “discuss” the issues Trump had raised regarding their alleged trade barriers with the U.S.

The announcement came just hours after Trump appeared to be digging in, telling Americans “BE COOL” in a Truth Social post, insisting that, “Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!”

It’s not clear what prompted Trump to change his mind — a growing chorus of his allies, and business leaders have come out publicly against the tariffs — including Elon Musk. Stocks have had a wild few days as investors became increasingly pessimistic. When a false-at-the-time headline suggesting Trump would take a 90-day pause shot around the internet on Monday, markets briefly soared on the news.

A 10% across-the-board duty will remain in place for the 75 non-retaliating countries, Trump added.

However, Trump said duties against China — which notably did retaliate — would now climb to a total of 125%, effective immediately.

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” he wrote. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”