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Facing a global market meltdown, President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly backed down on his tariffs on most nations for 90 days but raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.

It was seemingly an attempt to narrow what had been an unprecedented trade war between the U.S. and most of the world to a showdown between the U.S. and China. The S&P 500 stock index jumped more than 7% after the announcement, but the drama over 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 tariffs will now be prolonged as the administration engages in negotiations that could cause uncertainties to persist in the world economy.

Gee Scott: Stock market is ‘like the casino right now, this is awful’

Gee Scott, co-host of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on 成人X站 Newsradio, expressed his outrage at Trump’s actions.

“Something criminal is happening,” Gee proclaimed on “Gee and Ursula” Wednesday. “This is criminal.”

Gee added that while he is doing well financially, he is concerned many people won’t be able to recover.

“What makes me mad is the criminal activity in this, what makes me mad is that there will be people in this country that won’t recover from what has happened over the last week or two,” he said. “It is awful. It is criminal to be doing this stuff, to play these games with the stock market. Like, Nick came in here and said, it’s like a dang jackpot, like the casino right now. This is awful.”

Gee emphasized that 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 moves are directly affecting people.

“I don’t care if you’re conservative or Democrats, you gotta see the criminal activity that is happening,” he added.

Ursula Reutin, co-host of “Gee and Ursula,” threw out the question: “Was this all part of the plan? Could you look at it as OK, this is part of the negotiation?”

“There was never a plan,” Gee responded. “It is literally like standing in front of a house setting a fire. And once you set the fire, you tell your people, ‘Hey, come put the fire out.'”

Trump posts on Truth Social about 90-day tariff pause

Trump posted on Truth Social that because 鈥渕ore than 75 Countries鈥� had reached out to the U.S. government for trade talks and have not retaliated in meaningful way 鈥淚 have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.鈥�

Trump later told reporters that he pulled back on many global tariffs 鈥� but not on China 鈥� because people were 鈥測ippy,鈥� and 鈥渁fraid,鈥� adding that while he expected to reach deals that 鈥渘othing鈥檚 over yet.鈥�

The president said he had been watching the bond market and that people were 鈥済etting a little queasy.鈥� But after his tariff pause, Trump described the bond market as 鈥渂eautiful.鈥�

It seemed impossible to fully deny the pressure created by volatile financial markets that had been pushing Trump to reconsider his tariffs, even as some administration officials said the reversal had always been the plan. The pause was announced after the聽聽appeared to be in open rebellion against聽聽tariffs as they聽聽Wednesday, a signal that the U.S. president was not immune from market pressures.

The 10% tariff was the baseline rate for most nations that went into effect on Saturday. It鈥檚 meaningfully lower than the 20% tariff that Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea. Still, 10% would represent an increase in the tariffs previously charged by the U.S. government.

Looking at the next 90 days

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the negotiations with individual countries would be 鈥渂espoke,鈥� meaning that the next 90 days would involve talks on a flurry of potential deals. Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, told reporters that the pause was because of other countries seeking talks rather than brutal selloffs in the financial markets.

鈥淭he only certainty we can provide is that the U.S. is going to negotiate in good faith, and we assume that our allies will too,鈥� Bessent said.

The treasury secretary said he and Trump 鈥渉ad a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along鈥� and that the president had 鈥済oaded China into a bad position.鈥� Bessent said that Canada and Mexico would now be tariffed at 10%, even though those two countries had been tariffed by as much as 25% by Trump ostensibly to address fentanyl smuggling and illegal immigration.

Prior to the reversal, business executives were warning of a聽聽caused by his policies, some of the top U.S.聽聽are retaliating with their own聽聽and the stock market is quivering after days of decline.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the walk back was part of 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 negotiating strategy.

Leavitt said that the news media 鈥渃learly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we鈥檝e seen the opposite effect the entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets.鈥�

But market pressures had been building for weeks ahead of 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 move, with the president at times suggesting the import taxes would stay in place while also saying that they could be subject to negotiations.

Particularly worrisome was that U.S. government debt had lost some of its luster with investors, who usually treat Treasury notes as a safe haven when there鈥檚 economic turbulence. Government bond prices had been falling, pushing up the interest rate on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note to 4.45%. That rate eased after 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 reversal.

Markets are looking for trade truce

Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities, said before the announcement that markets wanted to see a truce in the trade disputes.

鈥淢arkets more broadly, not just the Treasury market, are looking for signs that a trade de-escalation is coming,鈥� he said. 鈥淎bsent any de-escalation, it鈥檚 going to be difficult for markets to stabilize.鈥�

John Canavan, lead analyst at the consultancy Oxford Economics, noted that while Trump said he changed course due to possible negotiations, he had previously indicated that the tariffs would stay in place.

鈥淭here have been very mixed messages on whether there would be negotiations,鈥� Canavan said. 鈥淕iven what鈥檚 been going on with the markets, he realized the safest thing to do is negotiate and put things on pause.鈥�

Contributing: Josh Boak, The Associated Press; Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest

Listen to Gee and Ursula on 鈥淭he Gee and Ursula Show鈥� weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on 成人X站 Newsradio.聽