Given that he's been championing tariffs against countries 'ripping off' the US ever since the 1980s, the imposition of penalties on exporters to America appeared to be the one policy that Donald Trump would never be prepared to reverse. He'd always acknowledged there would be no gain without pain in his bid to bring jobs back to the US and urged Americans to 'be cool' as plunging stock markets wiped trillions of dollars off their wealth. But just 13 hours after crippling duties on dozens of countries came into effect, Trump did indeed abruptly change his mind. On Wednesday afternoon, as investors ditched US government bonds and the Trump tariffs pushed the world towards a financial crisis, he 'blinked' and – at least for the moment – backed down. His sudden retreat was swiftly spun by his aides as all part of the genius deal-maker's master plan, but even Trump undermined that unconvincing explanation when he admitted he'd acted 'instinctively' as people started getting 'yippy' about the economic chaos. So who, or what, changed his mind? Given that he says he's only put the tariffs on a 90-day 'pause' – while simultaneously digging the US even deeper into a potentially cataclysmic trade war with China – the question of whether he's finally seen sense or may suddenly change his mind again is understandably weighing on many investors. The most obvious single reason for his U-turn was the alarming collapse of confidence in US bonds, threatening potentially ruinous higher borrowing costs for both consumers and the heavily indebted federal government. But the truth is that key members of Trump's administration had been urging him for days to reconsider his tariff rises as the horrifying scale of the fallout from them became all too clear. Trump's enthusiasm for tariffs has always been the policy which most divides senior Republicans and, on Sunday, four days after the US president unveiled his plans, one of them broke cover. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a prominent tariff sceptic, flew to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's palatial home in Palm Beach, Florida, where the president was playing golf. Bessent, a billionaire former hedge fund manager and, curiously, long-time friend of King Charles and Queen Camilla, had been inundated over the weekend with calls from Wall Street contacts urging him to persuade the president to hit the pause button. Bessent later said the pair had a 'long talk' which continued on Air Force One as they flew back to Washington DC on Sunday evening. With more than 75 countries contacting the White House to try to find a deal to ease the tariffs, Bessent encouraged Trump to negotiate with the US's trading partners. By this time, Bessent already had powerful allies in his mission to talk the president into rethinking his tariff blitz. Notable among them was Elon Musk, Trump's self-proclaimed 'First Buddy' and senior adviser. He had not only called for free trade between the US and Europe but described Peter Navarro, Trump's chief trade adviser and a tariff hawk, as 'dumber than a sack of bricks' after Navarro had dismissively called the Tesla chief a 'car assembler' reliant on parts from other countries. Trump was also aware of the depth of unhappiness about tariffs among business leaders as his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, had fielded an avalanche of calls from worried company bosses. However, he was still not entirely convinced, reportedly telling a senior aide on Monday that he was prepared to accept 'pain'. At the same time, he acknowledged that, while his policy might push the US into a recession, he wanted to be certain any downturn didn't turn into a fully-fledged depression. The White House infighting over tariffs continued during the week as both sides tried to win over the notoriously capricious president. Appearing on Tuesday afternoon on Fox News – a TV station Trump watches religiously – Stephen Miller, his pro-tariff deputy chief of staff, raised his voice in what some believe might have been an attempt to catch the president's attention and stiffen his resolve. 'We have a president who has now actually taken the necessary action to bring back American industrial power and might,' he said. However, behind the scenes, sources say Trump had decided to give more authority within his warring team of trade advisers to Scott Bessent, whose cause was helped by the sheer number of countries who had indicated a willingness to negotiate. Meanwhile, the famously stubborn president was also taking soundings from friends about market trends and making clear he was watching them closely himself. He knew that the markets had soared on Monday after a false rumour started spreading that he'd already approved a 90-day tariffs pause. On Wednesday morning, Trump was still publicly indicating that nothing had changed – telling followers on his Truth Social site to 'BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!' He followed that up four minutes later with: 'This is a great time to buy!' Aides insist Trump hadn't actually changed his mind at that point. But he also spent part of the morning watching America's influential top banker, JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon, giving an interview on the Fox Business Network in which he predicted the tariffs would 'likely' spark a recession and urged Trump – whom he strongly suspected was watching – to give Bessent more time to make deals. By lunchtime, Trump had made up his mind and, sitting in the Oval Office with Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, he tapped out his 90-day pause announcement on his social media site. It went out at 1.18pm local time and sent the markets soaring. Bessent was deputed to spin the climbdown, stepping out of the West Wing to tell reporters that 'it took great courage for [Trump] to stay the course until this moment… this was his strategy all along'. But his words rang hollow. Only the day before, Trump had reassured Republicans that 'I know what the hell I'm doing'. It took just 24 hours for the world to learn that this might well not be true.