Trump govt accused of 'manipulating markets' through 90-day tariff pause rumor: Here's what happened

Stock markets turned green for a brief moment Monday morning after reports claimed that President Donald Trump is not ruling out a pause on the tariffs. To be more specific, it was reported that a 90-day pause is what the bleeding markets can expect. But moments later, the White House denied the reports and markets tanked again. "This looks a lot like a pump and dump scheme," an X user commented as Trump aide Kevin Hassett came under fire.

What did Kevin Hassett say on Fox?

Kevin Hassett went to Fox, where he was asked if Trump would consider a 90-day pause in tariffs. Hassett did not say 'yes'; he did not say 'no'. "I think the president is gonna decide what the president gonna decide. There are 50 countries in negotiation with the president," he said, downplaying the tariff. "Even if you think there will be some negative effect from the trade side, that's still a small share of GDP," Hassett said.

Without naming Bill Ackman, Hassett said comments like this would be economic nuclear winter are irresponsible. Bill Ackman, in fact, urged the president to pause his tariffs or risk a "self-induced, economic nuclear winter".

White House asserted that Kevin Hassett never said that Trump would consider a 90-day pause.

This is the timeline of what happened that moved FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS on the market just now:

1) Kevin Hassett gives an unremarkable Fox interview at 8:24 a.m. ET

2) @atrupar clipped it, as he does, at 8:33 a.m. ET (and it gets not much notice)

3) @DeItaone "misinterprets"… pic.twitter.com/AC72czRCbv

— Doug Landry (@dougblandry) April 7, 2025

the Dow turns positive as CNBC talks about reporting that Kevin Hassett is saying Trump is considering a 90 day pause on tariffs for all countries other than China pic.twitter.com/ODJOsGVqWU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 7, 2025

INSANE market action right now. Market exploded higher on a headline attributed to Kevin Hassett. And now nobody can figure out where it came from and the markets are diving again.

An 8% surge and then a 3.5% plunge in a matter of seconds pic.twitter.com/HAcWqgrrch

— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) April 7, 2025

It appears to me this tweet triggered the brief market surge. Problem is, Kevin Hassett was on Fox News in the 8am hour and he didn’t say this. He simply didn’t rule out a pause. Far from what this tweet indicates. Market seems to now realize it wasn’t real. Selloff continues. https://t.co/wfJSiZrJ7J

— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) April 7, 2025

This is absolute comedy.

The market was blood red today.

Then, an unattributed rumor was started on X that there was a consideration of 90-day tariff pause.

The market turned green.

Then, 5 minutes later, the White House denied the rumor.

The market became red again. pic.twitter.com/7nbov5WkZr

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) April 7, 2025

Amid fears of a market mayhem today, the first day of the week after Trump announced the tariffs, Trumo said there is no inflation as oil prices, interest rates and food prices are down. "This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its tariffs by 34%," Trump posted before threatening China with more tariffs.

"If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th," Trump posted.

No pause on Trump tariffs

While the Trump administration has been accused of intentionally creating the confusion over this pause on tariffs, White House insiders defended that there is no looking back on tariffs