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** OPINION
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** ‘He caved’: How the media — and Trump’s team — framed the tariff pause
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President Donald Trump is displayed on a television on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

“He caved” was trending on X on Wednesday.

“He” is President Donald Trump, and the caving part was about his decision to pause his reciprocal tariffs for most countries for the next 90 days. But that pause does not include China. Instead, Trump announced he was raising tariffs on China to 125%.

Yet, as mentioned, “he caved” became the theme in the media on Wednesday.

On their homepages, The New York Times, PBS, The Hill, Financial Times, Yahoo Finance and others used the words “Trump backs down” in their headlines.

Then came the messaging. Or, perhaps, mixed messaging.

On Wednesday, after Trump’s announcement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters, “This was his strategy all along.”

But just one day earlier, on Tuesday, CNN’s Alayna Treene asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt if Trump would consider pausing tariffs to continue negotiations with other countries.

Leavitt answered, “The president was asked and answered this yesterday. He said he is not considering an extension or a delay. I spoke to him before this briefing, that was not his mindset. He expects these tariffs are going to go into effect.”

One could argue that Trump would not publicly say ahead of time that he would consider a pause of the tariffs. That, one could further argue, would give away his negotiation power. However, the message from the White House fluctuated more wildly than the stock market, which was up on Wednesday after days of being way down.

Fox News’ Howard Kurtz tweeted ([link removed]) , “NYT headline is ‘Trump Backs Down,’ but as markets surge, Treasury chief Bessent says this had been the plan all along. So the president never really intended to let the draconian tariffs take effect, except for China? He will certainly try to frame this as a victory.”

Kurtz framed it well.

In other words, it does feel like Trump is making this up as he goes along. Even this clip ([link removed]) shows him bouncing around on whether it was a negotiation ploy.

Here are a few stories worth checking out on this topic:
* The Washington Post’s Heather Long with “Trump caved on tariffs. It took a scary bond market freakout.” ([link removed])
* The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel with “There Was Never a Master Plan.” ([link removed])
* Former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove for The Wall Street Journal: “The Art of the 90-Day Tariff Pause.” ([link removed])
* The New York Times’ ​​Jamelle Bouie with “The Tariff Saga Is About One Thing.” ([link removed])


A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER
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** What now with TikTok?
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Here’s a subplot in this whole tariff rift between the U.S. and China: Any potential deal involving the sale of TikTok is off the table — for now and maybe forever.

In fact, Fox Business senior business correspondent Charles Gasparino tweeted Wednesday afternoon ([link removed]) , “Scoop: @WhiteHouse officials now concede the potential @tiktok_us deal — sale to a US company by the Chinese — is off the table for the foreseeable future and maybe forever as we go to a trade war focused totally on the Chinese.”

Saturday was supposed to be the deadline for the social media company to either be sold by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or face a ban in the U.S. But Trump extended that deadline by 75 days in hopes that a sale could be worked out. There were reportedly a few interested parties, although it’s not known how close any deal might have been — if there even was a deal to be made. Even then, it appeared that China was cool on the idea of sale, especially with a tariff war looming at the time.

But now, with the U.S. and China feuding over tariffs, forget about TikTok being sold. The question is, what happens now? Lawmakers already passed a law last year, which was then signed by then-President Joe Biden, that said TikTok needed to be sold or else face a ban in the U.S. The U.S. government fears the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over data that would compromise U.S. users. TikTok has said it has not shared U.S. data with the Chinese government and would never do so.

But Trump has now twice extended the deadline. He can’t continue to keep extending the deadline, can he? After all, this is a law. Trump has already said he wants to find a way to keep TikTok available in the U.S. Surveys show most Americans want that, too.

This complicated situation, however, gets even more tangled with the trade war.


** No surprise
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To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Trump administration is appealing a judge’s ruling that said it must grant access to The Associated Press. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled in the AP’s favor in its fight against Trump. The Trump administration had banned the AP from certain pool events because officials were angry that the AP continued to call the body of water between Florida and Texas the “Gulf of Mexico” instead of what Trump wants it called — the “Gulf of America.” The ban had been in effect since Feb. 11.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled in favor of the AP, writing, “Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists — be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere — it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.”

However, McFadden made it so his ruling wouldn’t go into effect until Sunday, giving the White House time to appeal if it chose to do so.

It chose to do so.

You had a sense that was coming. The AP’s David Bauder reported ([link removed]) Tuesday, “Shortly after the ruling, an AP reporter and photographer were turned away from joining a motorcade with the White House press pool to cover Trump’s appearance before the National Republican Congressional Committee.”

The law seems very much on the side of the AP in this case, but in these politicized times, nothing is a given when it comes to Trump and press freedom. This feels like a continuous, lengthy battle in court.


** The White House’s bizarre so-called policy
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, outside of the White House on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

In Friday’s newsletter ([link removed]) , I mentioned how a Poynter Report reader pointed out something buried in a March 14 New York Times story ([link removed]) . The Times story about threats from Donald Trump and Elon Musk to shut down the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Mauna Loa Observatory included this line: “White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to comment, writing in an email, ‘As a matter of policy, we do not respond to reporters with pronouns in their bios.’”

The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum had more in a story this week: “Pronouns in Bio? You May Not Get a Response From the White House.” ([link removed])

Grynbaum writes that the March 14 story was not an isolated case. He wrote, “On at least three recent occasions, senior Trump press aides have refused to engage with reporters’ questions because the journalists listed identifying pronouns in their email signatures.”

So, is it actually an official policy of the White House? Grynbaum asked and got this emailed response from Leavitt: “Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story.”

I wrote this last week after reading Leavitt’s response in the March 14 story, and I will double down on it after reading Grynbaum’s story this week: It’s stunning and appalling that a White House press secretary would actually say something like that.

But there’s more. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, wrote to Grynbaum in an email: “If The New York Times spent the same amount of time actually reporting the truth as they do being obsessed with pronouns, maybe they would be a half-decent publication.”

What a dumb thing to say.

Meanwhile, a Times spokesperson told Grynbaum, “Evading tough questions certainly runs counter to transparent engagement with free and independent press reporting. But refusing to answer a straightforward request to explain the administration’s policies because of the formatting of an email signature is both a concerning and baffling choice, especially from the highest press office in the U.S. government.”


** What was behind the switch?
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NFL commentator and insider Peter Schrager has made a nice career for himself, much of it built for his outstanding work as co-host of NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.” But Schrager announced last week that he was leaving the NFL Network and joining ESPN, where he has already started.

On John Ourand’s “The Varsity” podcast for Puck ([link removed]) , Schrager talked about his decision to leave the NFL Network for ESPN. He told Ourand that things felt rocky after the NFL Network moved the show from New York to Los Angeles this past offseason and that his time at the network had run its course.

As far as going to ESPN, Schrager told Ourand, “There were multiple companies that we were talking with, because my contract was up, and ESPN seemed like the perfect place. This feels right, and the opportunity to still do morning TV from New York, which seems to be the case. I’m going to be doing ‘Get Up’ and ‘First Take,’ and then my hope is to have a prominent role with ‘Monday Night Football,’ whether it be ‘Monday Night Countdown’ or the game broadcast or just setting up the day for them.”


** Congratulations
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Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications announced the finalists in the 2025 Mirror Awards competition ([link removed]) , which honors excellence in media industry reporting. And I wanted to give a special shoutout and congratulations to my Poynter colleague, Amaris Castillo. She was nominated for Best Profile for her piece: “In New Orleans, a pioneering nonprofit newsroom ponders a future beyond its founder.” ([link removed])

Way to go, Amaris!


** Media tidbits
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* The Washington Post’s Sarah Ellison and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez with “Kari Lake to be detailed to State Department to dismantle VOA parent agency.” ([link removed])
* Mediaite’s Colby Hall with “James Carville’s Doomsday Prediction of Trump’s Collapse Is Coming True Faster Than Anyone Imagined.” ([link removed])
* Adweek’s Mark Mwachiro with “NBC News Settles $30 Million Defamation Case With Georgia Doctor.” ([link removed])


** Hot type
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* The Washington Post’s Karin Brulliard with “Nearly 200 cows disappeared. The case remains cold.” ([link removed])


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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
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