Maggie Haberman Confronts Trump Treasury Chief On White House Driveway Over Tariff Pause — Hours After Trump Said ‘Be Cool’

CNN commentator and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman confronted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on President Donald Trump’s big tariff move just hours after telling investors to “BE COOL!” — asking why anyone should now believe “this is the last word?”

After a disastrous week in the stock market, Trump tried to calm fears Wednesday morning by posting a message telling investors to relax and “BE COOL” — then hours later announced a 90-day “pause” on most of the tariffs that caused the market to tank.

Bessent and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt came to the sticks in the White House driveway Wednesday afternoon to speak to reporters about the pause.

Haberman cut right to the chase, asking Bessent why Trump’s word should be trusted after the reversal:

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: And I think the market, in my 35 years in the market I always wanted certainty, so I think we’ve got more certainty.

KAROLINE LEAVITT: Maggie, go ahead.

MAGGIE HABERMAN: Mr. Secretary, why do people assume this is the last word? The President began this morning saying, “BE COOL!”

Five hours later he announces a new policy. Why will investors in the market assume that this is it?

SECRETARY SCOTT BESSENT: Because, again, as I said, we’ve given 90 days, and the only certainty we can provide is that the U.S. is going to negotiate in good faith, and we assume that our allies will too.

And in terms of certainty, we will see what China does, but what I am certain of.

What I’m certain of is that what China is doing… will affect their economy much more than it will ours, because they have an export-driven, flood-the-world with cheap export models, and the rest of the world now understands.

Because when we put up our tariff wall, those exports were already flowing to the rest to the G7 and to the Global South.

Watch above via C-SPAN.