Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denies bond market panic pushed Trump into backing down on tariffs

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denied that chaos in the bond market over the deleveraging of so-called basis trades forced President Trump into putting his global trade tariffs on pause for 90 days. Rather, Bessent said, this was Trump’s plan all along.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denied Wednesday that bond market volatility had forced the president into putting a 90-day pause on most trade tariffs.

Following President Trump’s announcement that most of the...