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Bessent's influence grows amid internal White House

conflicts

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Former hedge fund manager pushed for lower tariffs,

certainty

for markets

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Stock markets rebound after tariff pause announcement

By Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - Minutes after President

Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on a tariff plan that

triggered a stock market rout and global upheaval, U.S. Treasury

Secretary Scott Bessent strode out of the White House to explain

the abrupt turnabout.

"President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for

himself," Bessent told reporters. "This was his strategy all

along."

It was the clearest sign yet of the larger role Bessent has

taken this week in articulating Trump's trade policies to the

financial markets, even though his messaging has sometimes

contradicted the president and business leaders.

Multiple sources close to the White House said Bessent, a

former hedge fund manager, was seen as the proverbial adult in

the room, giving the president the best counsel among a team of

advisers on trade that includes tariff hawk Peter Navarro and

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

"The president is the one who ultimately ... altered his

strategy," said Stephen Moore, a longtime Trump adviser and

economist at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"But I think it was Scott who was always trying to take on

the protectionists in the White House, who were always pressing

Trump to go big on the tariffs."

One White House official told Reuters Bessent had favored

lower levies while Navarro had favored higher ones, though the

whole trade team backed the decision Trump announced on April 2

in the Rose Garden.

The multi-nation reciprocal tariffs plan wiped trillions of

dollars off global stock markets and sparked fears of a

recession. Stock markets zoomed higher on Wednesday after the

reprieve, with the S&P 500 posting its biggest daily gain since

2008.

Bessent publicly stuck to the administration's script in

defending the original tariffs policy. But in private

conversations, he moved the president toward negotiating with

other countries, according to one source with close ties to the

White House.

His interventions eventually won the day, at least

temporarily. In an X post on Wednesday, Lutnick said he and

Bessent were with Trump as the president wrote his social media

post announcing the 90-day pause.

"There's been a pecking order change," the source said of

Bessent's elevated role on Trump's trade team.

Former Representative Charlie Dent, a Republican from

Pennsylvania, described Bessent as a "real adult in this room"

who understood the economic implications of Trump's actions.

"I think it's important that his voice has been elevated in

this conversation," said Dent, while noting that uncertainty

remained.

Marc Short, Trump's legislative affairs director in

2017-2018, was less enamored.

"He's been out on the airwaves championing the strategy of

global tariffs for the last few weeks," Short said of Bessent.

"While I'm relieved to see the reprieve, I'm not sure that ...

anybody in the White House looks like a victor right now. It

appears as if they're in retreat."

MAKE DEALS

The scope of the tariffs announced last week stunned

virtually everyone from private sector economists, who rapidly

slashed their U.S. economic projections, to adversaries

including China's leadership, which forcefully retaliated, as

well as allies at home and abroad.

Normally loyal Republican lawmakers directed sharp criticism

at Trump and his lieutenants, while titans in the world of

finance such as Larry Fink and Jamie Dimon balked. Even Elon

Musk, the billionaire leader of Trump's efforts to gut the

federal government, lobbed insults at Navarro on social media.

Over the weekend, Bessent flew from New York to Florida,

where Trump was golfing, and then traveled back to Washington

with the president to discuss their message about tariffs for

the markets, the White House official said. The Treasury

secretary emphasized the need to stress a willingness to make

deals, the official said.

Bessent told reporters on Wednesday that he and Trump had

had a long conversation on Sunday. "In my 35 years in the

market, I always wanted certainty, so I think we've got more

certainty," he said.

White House rhetoric about the tariffs shifted this week,

with press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters on

Tuesday that Trump was open to "tailor-made" agreements with

other nations. The president tasked Bessent and U.S. Trade

Representative Jamieson Greer to kick off talks with Japan.

Bessent's elevated perch might not last in an administration

in which open warfare has raged between advisers such as Navarro

and Musk.

And even as he appeared to gain influence, Bessent's message

hasn't always aligned with what Trump was saying.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday,

Bessent said the president had planned on the pullback all

along, with an eye toward bringing countries to the bargaining

table. But Trump later indicated the near-panic in markets that

had built since last week factored into his decision to change

course.