• A 90-day pause has been placed on “reciprocal” tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump with the exception of China which now has a 125 percent tariff imposed on it.
• A 10 percent blanket tariff will be in effect for the duration of the pause.
• On the back of the pause, US markets swelled prompting concerns about potential insider trading.

On Wednesday, the same day massive tariffs were imposed on the United States’ trading partners, President Donald Trump changed his mind.

Last week Trump announced that nearly every country, including an island inhabited solely by penguins, would have tariffs added to products imported into the US. South Africa faced a 30 percent tariff but on average, tariffs would raise to 29 percent.

The announcement sent US stock markets into a tailspin and all week investors and analysts have criticised the tariffs. Even first buddy, Elon Musk suggested that perhaps Trump should reverse course, especially in Europe.

While a universal 10 percent tariff will remain in effect per CNN, the individual tariffs won’t come into effect for another 90 days. That is, if you aren’t China.

The pair of nations has now locked horns over tariffs repeatedly since last week. On the back of Trump’s announcement, China announced its own tariff increase on US products amounting to 34 percent, that shot up to 84 percent after Trump increased the figure to a 104 percent on Chinese products coming into the US.

But Trump wasn’t done.

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” the president posted to his social media platform.

However, the President later told reporters that “China wants to make a deal” so it’s not clear what exactly is happening between those two.

THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!

Before the pause on tariffs, while the market was in the toilet, Trump took to Truth Social pleading with his followers to “BE COOL” as everything would work out.

Shortly after that the President posted, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”.

After the announcement, the Nasdaq Composite soared with the index currently up 12.16 percent after just one day.

This jump rose many stocks including that of Trump Media & Technology Group. This is notable given Trump’s Truth Social Post which ends with DJT, the ticker assigned to the Trump Media & Technology Group on the Nasdaq.

This has prompted speculation that there may be something suspicious afoot, such as insider trading. As such, some have said they intend to investigate whether such a thing was happening.

“I’m going to do my best to find out,” Senator Adam Schiff told reporters. “Family meme coins and all the rest of it are not beyond insider trading or enriching themselves. I hope to find out soon.”

An insider trading scandal is brewing.

Trump's 9:30am tweet makes it clear he was eager for his people to make money off the private info only he knew. So who knew ahead of time and how much money did they make? pic.twitter.com/AJbtEq372n

— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 10, 2025

Whether anybody knew that Trump was going to reverse course on the tariffs is unclear at this stage but there is speculation that some within Trump’s inner circle saw substantial gains over the last few days. The President himself was sketchy in responses to when this decision was made.

What exactly the future holds is unclear. While Trump says the tariffs are paused for 90 days, that could change on day 89, or tomorrow, or in the course of this story being published. Trump also has a habit of kicking the can down the road as the current TikTok debacle demonstrates.

We’re not sure even the most tenured market analysts could have predicted this. Trump has remained firm on the fact that the tariffs were to be a permanent fixture. Hell, the tariffs went into effect in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. While the stock market has recovered, there is no denying that Trump caused unneeded turmoil on so many, especially if, as many claim, this was the plan all along.