Fox Business senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino wants to make sure Americans know exactly why he believes President Donald Trump reversed course on Wednesday when he paused some of his sweeping tariffs on the United States’ largest trading partners.
After Fox News’ Sandra Smith asked Gasparino if the president’s tariff reversal could have been part of his negotiating tactics all along, the 15-year Fox Business veteran quickly threw cold water on that idea.
“I want to tell you right now that Donald Trump outsmarted the world,” Gasparino told Smith shortly after Trump announced the 90-day pause. “Trust me. I’m an American, I support my president. But that’s not really what happened here, from what I understand.”
According to Gasparino, Japan forced the president’s hand.
“Let’s recall what happened overnight and from what I understand, and I’m getting this from people that are talking to the White House,” he said. “[T]he spike in yields on the 30-year and the 10-year bond, which showed that people were dumping our bonds. And who were those people dumping our bonds? Japan, the biggest holder of bonds, was selling bonds. That’s what I’m getting from some very big money managers.”
“If you have a mass sale of bonds, that means people are losing confidence in the U.S. economy, on the ability to do deals with us, and, from what I understand, this is what forced the hand of this 90-day reprieve,” Gasparino explained.
The reporter said he knew he would get “pushback” on his reporting but stated, “You cannot divorce this decision right here from what happened last night.”
Gasparino’s take on the situation stood in stark contrast with that of some of his Fox News colleagues, like Laura Ingraham, who called the move “genius,” and Jeanine Pirro, who said it was “the biggest win for America.”
When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked if the markets had anything to do with Trump’s reversal, he told reporters, “This was driven by the president’s strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along.”
“It took great courage — great courage — for him to stay the course until this moment,” Bessent added.
But, according to Gasparino, Trump’s move was hardly a profile in courage: “Let’s be clear what happened, who capitulated here, and why, and, you know, I don’t want to say this, because I am a patriot, I’m an American, but it is the White House who capitulated, based on everything I hear, and all of my sources. And the reason why is because of the bond market and what happened last night.” “Bessent knows this better than anybody,” he continued. Trump seemed to acknowledge later on Wednesday that the bond market was a contributing factor behind the pause. “I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “I was watching the bond market. It’s very tricky. If you look at it now, it’s beautiful. The bond market right now is beautiful. But I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy,” Trump said. Despite finding it was Trump who “capitulated” on tariffs amid bond market volatility, Gasparino still found a way to boost the president. “What you can say, I think, legitimately here is, Trump decided to take the win,” he said, adding: “There was overwhelmingly deal potential here among the entire world, except for maybe China, right? Everybody really wanted something. So he did take the win, but make no mistake about it … it’s all because of the bond market.”
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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