White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has been destroyed on social media for suggesting that President Donald Trump’s sensational U-turn on global tariffs is part of his genius “master strategy.”
After much brouhaha about unmovable punitive tariffs, Trump announced a 90-day “pause” Wednesday, reducing the higher-rate levies to 10 percent for almost all countries except China.
The president’s allies are struggling to keep up with the messaging since he reneged on his harsh approach, but Miller has remained steadfast in his belief that the great MAGA mind is playing some sort of 3D chess that nobody else understands.
“President Trump’s master strategy,” Miller swooned Wednesday on X, made up of “bold statesmanship and brilliant tactical planning has done more to reform broken international trade in days than anyone has achieved in decades while economically and politically isolating the global architect of economic aggression: China.”
Trump’s “reform” is currently taking the shape of a master class in destruction, with the stock market (despite relief after his tariff pause) a shadow of its former self, and even the bond market on a shakier than normal footing.
It’s all part of the plan, though, according to Trump acolyte Miller. “You have been watching the greatest economic master strategy from an American President in history,” he swooned once more, returning to his keyboard one hour after his original paean to the great leader.
Despite the stock market picture improving after Trump paused sizable tariffs he had just imposed on dozens of countries, Miller detractors haven’t forgotten the damage that has been reaped up until this point.
— Andreas Koureas FRAS FRSA 🇬🇧🎗️ (@AndreasKoureas_) April 9, 2025
“No one who is not a TDSer believes this. Trump blinked,” one person, referring to so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said. Another added that Trump’s tariff break comes after a “sloppy deployment of a very shortsighted and contentious opening move.”
“This is a very obvious ‘you over played your hand move.’ Now you’re attempting to spin the narrative because the result was so bad,” the person added.
“You are watching a dumbass who has no idea what he’s doing,” one person said more pointedly. Sharing a graph on how Trump’s tariff flip-flopping has affected the stock market, another person added: “Veering aside at the last second from driving off a cliff is NOT a ‘master strategy’, dilettante.”
Here’s the strategy. pic.twitter.com/PtkjZPaCas
— Joe G (@EastEndJoe) April 9, 2025
Another detractor said: “He is successfully executing the U.S. economy. If that was his goal, then he is a genius.”
Despite the U-turn being viewed as a blink from Trump, the official line is that we have just witnessed the “Art of the Deal” in practice. So said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as she blamed the media for tanking the stock market.
“You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact we’ve seen the opposite effect,” she told reporters Wednesday while standing alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He claimed that it was all a “successful negotiating strategy… No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump.”
You are watching a dumbass who has no idea what he’s doing. pic.twitter.com/zhKST9r3Q1
— Elite E Man (@Eman856) April 9, 2025
Fox News, meanwhile, was in overdrive Thursday morning. Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade went on a victory lap in a diner in Richmond, Virginia, lauding Trump for “staring down” the belligerents in the trade war that he started.
Trump tariff-critical hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman also changed his tone, writing on X: “This was brilliantly executed by @realDonaldTrump. Textbook, Art of the Deal.”
“This is the main event. There’s a major strategic shift unfolding,” another X user said in response to Miller’s post.
“Art of the Deal on a global level. Incredible to watch in real time. We also sniffed out the anti-America politicians who outed themselves thanks to their TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome),” another said.
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