From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

Donald Trump reverses himself on tariffs, at least in part, after a route in the bond market

raised fears of a larger economic meltdown. Is this a change of heart by the president

or merely a change of tactics on tariffs

and what happens next in the global trade war

that the president unleashed

and has been the most significant decision

of his second term?

That's our subject for today on Potomac Watch.

I'm Paul Gigo, the editor of the editorial page of the Wall Street

Journal, and I'm here with my two trade-watching colleagues, Joe Sternberg and Alicia Finley.

So first, let's clarify for people what Trump did on Wednesday afternoon. The 10% tariff level

he imposed is going to stay. That's not going away. That's on just about every

country. But he did pause for 90 days, the so-called reciprocal tariffs that he imposed on most

countries around the world last week on a formula that most people consider bizarre. That's the one

that hit Vietnam with 46% tariffs, 20% on Europe,

and a whole variety of what seemingly were arbitrary tariffs on countries based in part

on their trade surplus with the United States. Now, the exception this week is China,

which Trump hit with an even higher tariff, up to 125% on all Chinese goods. And here on

Thursday, the White House said it's actually 145% on Chinese goods. Let's listen to the president

explain his decision on Wednesday afternoon. Somebody had to do what we did. And I did a 90-day

pause for the people that

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