Why Trump hates the "E's"

• Investors and the nation's financial system crave stability and predictability — the opposite of what Trump's delivering.

Zoom in: The president's trade policies revolve less around traditional economic theories and more around semantics — and his desire to project power.

• "What's the real policy? Who knows?" the exasperated editorial board of the Wall Street Journal asked Sunday when it grappled with the mystery of what it labeled "Trump's Exceptional Tariff Weekend."

Trump is still talking about tariff exceptions, as he did Monday for car companies. He just doesn't use an "E" word, and tries to frame the matter in a way that connotes control.

• "Look, I'm a very flexible person," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I don't change my mind. But I'm flexible."

The timeline: Trump's tariff two-step began at 10:36pm ET Friday, when Customs and Border Protection issued a bulletin that spared cell phone and computer makers such as Apple from crushing tariffs on Chinese imports. The document used the word "exception" three times.

• 9:20pm Saturday: The White House posts a video clip on X of the president on Air Force One ducking a question when asked about exceptions for iPhones and other electronics. "I'll give you that answer on Monday," he said. "We'll be very specific."
• 9am Sunday: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears on ABC's "This Week" and explains that the technology items are "exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs" Trump wants to levy. "This is not like a permanent sort of exemption," Lutnick said.
• 3:36pm Sunday: "There was no Tariff 'exception' announced on Friday," Trump posted on Truth Social, ignoring the administration's repeated use of the word in its Friday bulletin.

The intrigue: Trump's comment bolstering Lutnick's remarks was partly aimed at the pundits and Wall Street execs who believed Lutnick was countermanding the president.

• Behind the scenes, White House officials asked Lutnick to go on TV on Sunday to push back against the idea of "exceptions." Reports about them were annoying Trump.
• "Trump didn't like the coverage about exceptions and exemptions. He didn't want to look like he was giving in to Apple," a White House official said.

Flashback: Trump's aversion to exemptions and exceptions in his tariff policy stem partly from his first term, when he thought his U.S. trade representative then, Robert Lighthizer, "granted too many exceptions and didn't drive enough hard bargains," a Trump adviser said.

• The adviser added that Trump is happy with his current trade rep, Jamieson Greer.
• Even so, some supporters of Trump's trade and tariff policies hope Lighthizer makes a return. One financial specialist called him "the godfather of tariffs and getting tough on China."

What's next: Trump's signal that he was open to temporary tariff relief for carmakers came amid concerns that his plan would force layoffs in the auto industry.

• "I'm looking at something to help some of the car companies with it. They're switching to parts that were made in Canada, Mexico and other places, and they need a little bit of time, because they're going to make them here," Trump said.

Aides and allies are trying to divine a signal in the noise.

• One person involved in the tariff talks in the White House said Trump is clearly watching the markets, despite his denials, but he's using their reactions to "fine tune" his plans.
• So rather than a gradual rollout of his tariff scheme, he began with "broad and sweeping tariffs," saw the markets panic, and modified the plan in response.
• "If you were to on day one say, 'We're gonna tax semiconductors 30% across the board,' the market would have reacted terribly," the insider said.
• "But now, in the grand scheme of things — because everything seems so crazy — once you kind of whittle it in and you rein it in a little bit, everybody's kind of happy about it. That's the thinking."