White House eased China tariffs after warnings of harm to 'Trump's people'

[Zorro]

The president has backtracked repeatedly on his tariff policies, creating a whiplash with downsides and few clear benefits so far.

Some of the president’s top aides saw an opening.

Throughout April, President Donald Trump’s sky-high tariffs on imports from China had rippled through the U.S. and global economies. But the president was reluctant to move too quickly to lower the penalties on Beijing, believing that the United States needed to stomach some short-term economic pain to achieve a major rebalancing in trade and that China had more to lose in the standoff.

By the end of the month, though, a growing number of blue-collar workers whom Trump saw as part of his political base — including longshoremen and truckers — began warning that tariffs and a near-total cessation of trade with China were hurting them. Behind the scenes, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other aides told Trump that his own voters were in danger if the tariffs did not come down, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. That gave them a path to initiating negotiations with the Chinese, which culminated this past weekend in Geneva with a partial deal to reduce tariffs between the world’s two biggest economies. One White House official cautioned, however, that multiple factors contributed to the trade talks in Switzerland.

“The key argument was that this was beginning to hurt Trump’s supporters — Trump’s people,” one person briefed on the talks said. “It gave Susie a key window.”

Trump’s pullback reflected the core tension that has bedeviled the White House as he has tried using tariffs to remake the global economy in record time: What he seeks is virtually impossible without substantial political and economic blowback, even to constituencies the administration aims to protect.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/14/trump-tariffs-china-trade/

[mwmisses4289]

1. More likely they pointed out to it that essentially ceasing all shipments

from China means that his maga crap will be unaffordable for his poorly educated base. Can't have that money sitting in their pockets when it needs the money so badly, eh?

[republianmushroom]

2. duh !!

[cbabe]

3. But but but the China virus ...