'Forced to back off': Fox News reporter rebuffs Trump’s latest economic move

Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino broke with MAGA over the weekend with an admission that President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to negotiate with China over reducing tariffs was a surrender.

“Both sides blinked,” Gasparino wrote on X Sunday, specifying that “I didn’t say we won.”

Trump had been promising a 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods, but backed away from the tariff yet again—marking one of many times since the president has stepped back from imposing tariffs after riling markets with big threats. Gasparino acknowledged the president’s emerging tactic of making big threats, blinking at the last minute, and then claiming triumph.

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“Trump raised tariffs on the world [and] the markets, particularly the bond market—which we need to finance our debt—rebelled,” Gasparino tweeted. “Trump then was forced to back off. End of story. Film at 11 of the president spinning this as a major victory.

Bloomberg reports Trump’s most recent change of heart involves imposing a greatly reduced 30 percent duty on goods from China, down from 145 percent, while China allegedly reduced its 125 percent tariff on U.S. products to 10 percent.

Gasparino predicted last week the U.S. was not in a strong position to incite a trade war, claiming “we have a weak negotiating hand.”

“We’re almost in a recession. We have markets that are on edge. … We need people to buy our debt, and China supplies us with a lot of cheap goods. We could see inflation ratchet up dramatically if we don’t get a deal with them. And Xi [Jinping] knows this.”

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The business reporter reminded his audience that “it’s really the budget deficit” causing the trade deficit, but the U.S. requires the budget deficit to maintain the nation’s comfortable “standard of living.”

“[W]hat we have seen is a little lesson on how markets exert their power, how when you have to depend on them as we still do … you can’t go to trade war with the world without bad stuff happening.”