Trump says tariffs pause announcement was "written from the heart"

• Trump said his decision to suspend all but 10% baseline tariffs while hiking China levies to 125%, which caught Republicans off-guard, "probably came together early this morning" after he discussed the matter with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
• Lutnick said on X Wednesday that he and Bessent "sat with the President while he wrote one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his Presidency," in announcing the pause.

Zoom in: Trump said they "just wrote it up" with no access to lawyers. "We wrote it up from our hearts, right? It was written from the heart and I think it was well written, too," he said.

• "We don't want to hurt countries that don't need to be hurt, and they all want to negotiate. The only problem is ... you can only do so many at one time," he added.
• "We want to get it right; we want to take care of them, but we have to take care of our country so... But this was something certainly, we've been talking about for a period of time and we decided to pull the trigger today, and we're happy about it."

More from Axios:

• Trump pauses most tariffs, but these are still in effect
• Republicans fume as Trump blindsides them with tariff pause
• Trump's tariffs sparked blowback from all corners of his MAGA base

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more comment from President Trump and further context.