A Key Moment in Tariff Reversal: Sean Hannity's Show

Asian and European markets surged on Thursday, as the US market did the previous day on news of President Trump's partial reversal on tariffs. However, the major American indexes were poised to open Thursday with losses of 1% to 2% as investors continue to process the dizzying chain of events, reports CNBC. Outlets, meanwhile, were taking a closer look at Trump's surprise move on Wednesday:

• Trump won't like the first line of the Wall Street Journal news analysis on what transpired: "President Trump finally blinked." Plunging world markets and increasingly worried voices from within his own camp swayed the president, according to the story. Still, the "episode was classic Trump," the story observes. "He took a drastic action, closely tracked the reaction, kept advisers and allies guessing and then changed course."

• Similarly, an Axios assessment asserts that Trump "buckled under tremendous, mounting-by-the-minute pressure from CEOs ... friends ... GOP senators ... the markets ... and bond prices." The move suggests that in the tariff debate, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (who were with Trump as he announced his move on social media) won the argument for more caution over the view of trade adviser Peter Navarro. Indeed, a "key" to the shift was "Trump's decision to give Bessent more authority within his team of trade advisers," per the Journal.
• Trump told reporters later that he acted because people were getting "yippy," particularly in the bond market, though advisers sought to put a much more calculated spin on things. "You have been watching the greatest economic master strategy from an American President in history," tweeted Stephen Miller. "This was his strategy all along," said Bessent.

• A key pressure point on Trump came Tuesday night as he watched Sean Hannity's show on Fox, reports the Washington Post. Knowing he would be watching, GOP senators including John Neely Kennedy, Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, and Ted Cruz talked about their tariff worries, and Trump spoke with the group by phone after the show for about an hour. Cruz tells the newspaper that he "encouraged him, as I did on the Hannity show, to negotiate quickly one or more major trade deals."
• On Wednesday morning, Trump also watched Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase warn that the tariffs were likely to trigger a recession in a CNBC interview. Still, the president then urged Americans to "BE COOL" on social media and encouraged them to buy stocks. But the tariff reversal came a few hours later. The "real credit, Mr. Trump's advisers admit privately, should go to the bond markets," per the New York Times. "Trump's decision was driven by fear that his tariffs gamble could quickly turn into a financial crisis."

(More President Trump stories.)