This article originally appeared on PolitiFact.
When a reporter asked President Donald Trump why he paused country-by-country tariffs only a week after unveiling them, Trump said “Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know? They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.”
WATCH: Brooks and Capehart on Trump’s tariffs and reaction from the markets
Trump’s April 9 explanation came a day after the S&P 500, a broad stock market gauge, fell to 19 percent below its most recent peak, which had come in mid-February.
Americans with investments, retirement savings or pensions reliant on the stock market were feeling the squeeze of that decline. But economists and other financial observers suspected that the stock market decline may not have been the most important factor pushing Trump to pause these tariffs.
The likelier culprit: the bond…
