Rex Huppke wrote in USA Today about Trump’s sudden decision to pause his draconian tariffs for 90 days. His conclusion: He showed the world he is chicken.

If there’s one thing that’s absolutely clear about President Donald Trump’s sensible, resolute and consistent tariff policy, it’s that he’s definitely not a chicken who panicked the minute things started looking bad.

With markets reeling and the odds of a recession shooting up, Trump made a Wednesday afternoon announcement that he would pause or lower the previously announced BIG, STRONG, NECESSARY reciprocal tariffs he had placed on all countries. China was the only nation that didn’t get the pause/lowering treatment. 

It was an about-face of biblical proportions, given that a mere five days had passed since Trump posted on social media: “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.”

In fact, on Wednesday morning Trump told Americans to “BE COOL” in a post on his Truth Social platform. Over the weekend, while Trump was golfing in the wake of massive market collapses, he wrote online: “WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy.”

And heading back from his golf weekend, Trump told reporters that with tariffs, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.” 

Trump decided to HANG TOUGH on tariffs for a few minutes, then fold

I guess Trump had enough medicine. I guess he decided not to HANG TOUGH.

Trump’s tariff reversal was head-spinning in its swiftness

But don’t you dare say that Trump panicked and took his tariff ball and ran home. Don’t you dare say that!

Trump is the toughest and most no-nonsense president in American history, and there’s no way world leaders will now look at him as a paper tiger who appears to have no clue what he’s doing.

Granted, The New York Times recently reported: “President Trump said on Sunday that he would not reverse tariffs on other nations unless the trade deficits that the United States runs with China, the European Union and other nations disappeared.

“His comments indicated that the steep import taxes that have panicked global businesses and investors would be in place for the long run.”

Turns out “the long run” was not particularly long.

Trump has shown America is all talk on tariffs

Treasure Secretary Scott Bessent said of the tariffs Sunday: “We’re going to hold the course.”

He also said trade negotiations would not happen quickly: “They’ve been bad actors for a long time. And it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.”

Gotcha. It appears Trump negotiated things away in approximately three days without getting anything except a nation with an economy plagued by uncertainty and a world that knows America’s president will fold in an instant.

A week ago, the White House made it sound like Trump would not bend

Looking at the White House fact sheet on reciprocal tariffs posted on April 2 – a mere week ago – you can find bold statements like this:

“These tariffs will remain in effect until such a time as President Trump determines that the threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying nonreciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated.”

“President Trump refuses to let the United States be taken advantage of and believes that tariffs are necessary to ensure fair trade, protect American workers, and reduce the trade deficit ‒ this is an emergency.”

“Reciprocal tariffs are a big part of why Americans voted for President Trump ‒ it was a cornerstone of his campaign from the start. Everyone knew he’d push for them once he got back in office; it’s exactly what he promised, and it’s a key reason he won the election.”

The world now knows, for sure, that President Trump is a chicken

So, to sum it up: Trump’s tariff policies are what voters wanted and they will NEVER CHANGE and this is “an emergency” and the “tariffs will remain in effect” until the threat is resolved and America is in it for “the long run” and we need to “HANG TOUGH” and, oh, by the way, we’re putting a pause on all the harebrained tariffs we announced because we almost cratered the economy with this incalculably ignorant idea.

Don’t you dare say President Trump panicked. Don’t you dare say he chickened out.

That would be too kind, frankly. Because it would assume he had a clue about what he was doing in the first place.

Cluck, cluck, cluck.