Tense hour-long phone call that made Donald Trump push pause on tariffs after people got ‘yippy’
WASHINGTON, DC: What started as Donald Trump’s self-declared “liberation day” quickly turned into a week of economic whiplash—as Wall Street tumbled and insiders scrambled to talk him down from the tariff ledge.
Just one week after the US President proudly declared economic independence with a bold tariff plan, markets were tanking, investors were sweating, and the advice—solicited or not—was flooding in from every direction. It reportedly took a village of panicked billionaires and GOP lawmakers to get the president to even consider pumping the brakes.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's advice to Donald Trump
One of the loudest voices was JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who made his move live on Fox Business as he sat across from Maria Bartiromo Wednesday morning, April 9.
Dimon said it was "perfectly reasonable" to want to make trade more fair for the American economy but warned that Trump’s tariffs were blindsiding the economy and could trigger inflation and slower growth, the Daily Mail reported.
Bartiromo asked him if he was "personally" expecting a "recession.” “I think probably. That’s a likely outcome,” he replied.
Dimon suggested Trump take it easy and let Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent get to work.
“Take a deep breath, negotiate some trade deals. That’s the best thing they can do,” he said. “I’m taking a calm view. But I think it could get worse if we don’t make some progress here.”
Behind the scenes, Dimon said he’d been hearing from investors and execs all whispering that maybe they should hit the brakes, cut back, and wait to see if Trump’s trade chaos blows over. “That is kind of recessionary talk,” he warned, foreshadowing an economic "slow down".
Senators stage a Fox News intervention
While Jamie Dimon made his pitch on-air, a Fox News town hall that same night starred a lineup of Republican senators who wanted Donald Trump to hear them loud and clear.
The event's host, Sean Hannity, noted at the get-go that the president was watching.
The panel featured Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Republican Sens John Kennedy, Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, Katie Britt, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Markwayne Mullin.
The strategy seems to have worked.
According to the Washington Post, Trump followed up with a roughly hour-long phone call with the senators, during which they urged him to turn the tariff chaos into leverage—use it to broker major trade deals and settle the markets.
But this wasn’t just a Senate-sized intervention. The pressure came from every corner of Trumpworld. As one source put it, the president was “watching the markets and cable news very closely.”
Donald Trump blames the 'yips'
According to the report, Donald Trump's new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, convinced him to allow the release of details about upcoming trade negotiations with foreign partners eager to cooperate. It appears Trump ultimately agreed.
The man who had declared tariff war just days earlier eventually logged into social media and urged people to "be cool," adding that “this is a great time to buy!”
Trump told reporters he’d already started rethinking the tariff stance and had made his final call “fairly early” Wednesday morning before drafting the social media post that would send stocks into a euphoric bounce.
Asked why he made the change, Trump remarked, “Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line.”
“They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid because we have a big job to do," he added.
Stocks ultimately soared, and the panic paused. Trump signed off with a post in the early morning hours of Thursday: “What a day, but more great days coming!!!”
