By threatening conditions, playing golf, and sending elusive messages, Mr. Trump has partly achieved his goal, bringing economies to the negotiating table.
The moment Mr. Trump held up a board announcing the reciprocal tariffs on 180 of America’s “trade partners” on April 2 shocked the world and sent global financial markets reeling. The tariffs on this board were all unprecedented in global trade.
Setting high standards to threaten and using chaos as leverage to maintain the initiative and confuse the opponent is a tactic of Mr. Trump.
According to the Economist , the tactic of threatening to negotiate is not new and has been used by Mr. Trump many times, from trade policy to politics. Last week, when he put himself at the center of a global speculation “game”, President Trump may have bet that the market would recover when he signaled “pause” and that his critics would be seen as overreacting in the days before.
Despite his tax policy being like a “storm” hitting the US stock market as well as other countries, the head of the US still calmly went golfing. On April 3, a day after the reciprocal tax was launched, the US and global stock markets plummeted, Mr. Trump was present at Trump National Doral golf course. He promoted a golf tournament sponsored by Saudi Arabia. The next day, he continued playing golf at another course in Florida, instead of attending a military event.
US President Donald Trump and his son Eric Trump drive a golf cart during a preview of the LIV Golf Miami tournament at Trump National Doral Miami, April 3. Photo: AFP.
Democrats ridiculed and the media did not ignore the president’s two-day golf outing. But the White House was ready to “add fuel to the fire” by announcing that Mr. Trump had won the golf match and would advance to the final round.
The Economist suggests that perhaps Mr Trump really doesn’t care about the trillions of dollars in market value that have “evaporated”. Or perhaps he simply wants to play golf and believes that appearing indifferent to the chaos will strengthen his position in the upcoming negotiations. “For Mr Trump, indifference is a tool – a way of expressing his power, which he values most,” the newspaper commented.
US President Donald Trump at Capitol Hill on March 4. Photo: AP
On one hand, appearing calm, on the other hand, Mr. Trump sent out elusive messages.
The Trump administration has also been sending conflicting messages. Initially, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick repeatedly said there would be no negotiations, echoing trade adviser Peter Navarro. But later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that “the decision to delay the tariff increase was the president’s original strategy, not a market reaction.”
“He and I had a long discussion on April 6. This has been the strategy from the beginning. He has shown great courage in sticking to the strategy up to this point,” said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Even for Mr Trump, what he really believes is an unknown. While he seems serious about a 10% base tax (having promised a universal 20% rate during his campaign),
Asked on April 7 whether the tariffs were fixed or negotiated, he said both. According to the Economist , the reciprocal tariff policy may only be launched for negotiation.
The White House later said the door was open to new trade talks, although the exact formula for the tariff reductions was unclear. Trump himself said: “I know what I’m doing.”
Two days later, on April 9, Mr. Trump wrote a notice to postpone reciprocal tariffs for countries that “don’t retaliate,” except for China. Thanks to that, the chaotic week temporarily ended with a booming session for the stock market. The major indexes Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 had their best gains in decades.
At that point, he struck a conciliatory tone, saying the decision to postpone was “written with all my heart.” “I think it’s a very positive thing for the world and for us. We don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt, and they all want to talk,” he said.
Commenting on Mr. Trump’s moves, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt immediately mentioned the book The Art of the Presidential Deal written with journalist Tony Schwartz, first published in 1987.
“A lot of people in the media have missed the president’s ‘art of the deal.’ You clearly don’t see what the president is doing here,” Leavitt said. In this book, Mr. Trump shares his views on business, negotiations and the deals he has made.
Overall, in some ways, his tactics over the past week have worked. The more than 50 economies that expressed interest in talks last weekend have grown to 70 by the time the tariffs were suspended. The White House predicts more countries will come knocking on his door over the next three months.
