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Allies of President Donald Trump, including at least three Republican senators, urged him directly this week to shift his strategy and edge away from his tariff regime by using it as leverage with other nations.
It seems that Trump was listening.
After dismissing the prospect of a climbdown for seven days, on Wednesday Trump paused some of the levies that debilitated stock markets and clouded the US economic outlook. His move didn’t happen in a vacuum — it followed a quiet but firm push by a handful of Republicans to get the president to pause, even temporarily, what was shaping up to be a global fiscal calamity.
Trump’s move became public during a meeting of Senate Republicans, who were growing increasingly tense as stocks kept plummeting and there appeared to be no exit strategy from a global trade war. As harrowing as the last few days were for GOP lawmakers, their predicament would have only gotten dicier next week when Congress leaves DC for a two-week recess.
“Jubiliation is too strong a word. But it was positive,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said of the reaction among the Senate GOP to Trump’s pause. There was applause, according to one attendee.
The president’s decision to suspend higher tariffs on most nations except China, while leaving a 10% across-the-board levy in place, wasn’t a total victory for free traders. But it amounted to a significant deescalation from policies that threatened to swamp Republicans.
Three of those GOP senators — Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Lindsey Graham — confirmed to Semafor that they had directly urged Trump to make deals that brought tariffs down, and to do so quickly. Cruz also used his podcast “Verdict” to make the case for Trump to swiftly use his leverage after the tariffs were announced last week.
“If using these tariffs as leverage, the Trump administration lowers tariffs from our trading partners dramatically, and in turn, lowers American tariffs, that would be a massive victory,” the Texan told Semafor on Wednesday shortly before Trump’s announcement. “If the path forward is continued high tariffs from America and continued high tariffs from our trading partners in perpetuity, that’s a terrible outcome for Texas and America.”
Lee, of Utah, paired his direct advice to Trump with a public call to engage in fast dealmaking with trading partners. Graham gave Trump similar counsel.
Summing up his message to Trump, the South Carolinian recalled: “‘I think people are responding to what you’ve done. Sit down with them and see what kind of deals you can get.’”
It makes sense that some Republicans would go right to Trump, since his administration has been plagued by mixed messages on whether the tariffs were negotiating tools or permanent ways to try to rebalance global trade.
Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro began by insisting the sweeping announcement was not a negotiation; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and later Trump, began adjusting that as more countries contacted the White House.
Until Wednesday, even as rumors of a pause swirled, the White House maintained that one was not on the table. Trump himself said Monday that they were “not looking at that.”
Behind the scenes, though, some close to the White House told Semafor they were hearing the opposite and felt Wednesday’s announcement was inevitable (though there was debate over whether to characterize the “pause” as hard or soft in light of ongoing negotiations).
Once the pause got announced, more confusion took hold as advisers at times struggled to clarify portions of the latest deal, such as whether Canada and Mexico were subject to new tariff levels. The White House later clarified that the new 10% levy did not apply to those nations.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is more closely aligned with Navarro than Bessent, was also in the room for a pre-announcement meeting with Trump. Notably, he did not brief reporters.
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Trump later told reporters that he chose the pause because people were “jumping a little bit out of line” and getting a “little bit afraid.” He also said “nothing’s over yet” — unmistakably, the signs of a brewing trade war are still visible in Washington.
And the temporary climbdown is also partial: Tariffs on China are now 125%.
Nonetheless, Republicans and financial markets breathed a sigh of relief. The S&P 500 rose 6% and Treasury bond yields, which had spiked in recent days, fell. Goldman Sachs rescinded its prediction that a recession was more likely than not, though its model still put the odds at 45%.
One senior Wall Street executive told Semafor Trump’s decision was “the financial and economic equivalent of Khrushchev turning the ships around.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., was more circumspect: “It slows down any escalation, so I’m glad the president made that choice. But now we need to get a deal flow going on.”
Market watchers said Wednesday’s dramatic spike in Treasury bond yields amid a tariff-induced sell-off likely pushed Trump to reverse course, noting he did so on a day when the stock market was relatively calm. Bessent sought to play down the volatility in an interview with Fox Business as an “uncomfortable but normal” side effect of “very large leveraged players who are experiencing losses.” But it was still enough to provoke some GOP lawmakers to warn of the need for “Treasury market structure and reform.”
If Republicans on the Hill were pressing Trump for a short-term detente, he too was pressing them to back down. He said he would veto a bill that would give Congress far more sway over tariffs, slowing its momentum on Capitol Hill.
Even so, many Republicans were willing to give him more time to negotiate even with the higher tariffs rates. Yes there was internal GOP pressure on Trump to make a deal, but there was also no sign the president would be overridden by Congress.
“Uncertainty is never good for anybody. It’s not good for the economic markets, it’s not good for the worker, it’s not good for the business owner who wants to make investments. That’s the big issue,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who otherwise supported Trump’s goal.
Burgess, Eleanor and Shelby’s View
If you needed a reminder that things in Trump’s Washington can change on a dime, this may end up being the most memorable example of the president’s second term.
Of course, the drama isn’t close to over: There’s now a 90-day fuse burning down, a huge trade war with China and the 10% baseline tariffs. In Washington and Wall Street, though, those are problems for another day.
The episode is a reminder that, as emboldened as Trump is, he can’t defy gravity. And day after day of stock market losses combined with increasing recession forecasts can’t be totally ignored.
Room for Disagreement
Several Republicans viewed Trump’s pause as a reaction to the stock markets and economic indicators that have been blinking red, particularly bond yields that spiked considerably on Wednesday morning — and may have played as much of a role as senatorial persuasion.
But some of his allies said that’s selling him short.
“The 90-day pause is an acknowledgement that these 70-plus countries have come to the table,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. “People are going to look back 30 years from now that this is a real realignment that’ll work for the American worker.”
Liz Hoffman contributed.