WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – In a surprise reversal President Donald Trump paused the hefty tariffs on most U.S. trading partners.

The move caused a stock market spike and had many leaders breathing a sigh of relief.

This is a significant shift from President Trump, but his administration says the market meltdown wasn’t behind the tariff pause, instead saying it was the flood of countries asking to negotiate.

“We don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt. And they all want to negotiate,” said Trump.

Exactly one week after announcing his massive tariff plan, the president changed course putting a 90-day pause on the steep reciprocal tariffs for dozens of countries to give his team time to negotiate new trade deals.

“You have to have flexibility to do it right, and that’s what we have. We brought everybody to the table,” said Trump.

The pause does not extend to China.  Instead, President Trump is raising U.S. tariffs on the country to 125% after China hiked its tariffs on the U.S.

“I’m not calling it a trade war but I’m saying China has escalated and President Trump responded courageously to that,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that sends a clear message.

“Do not retaliate and you will be rewarded,” he said.

The pause announcement gave global markets a huge boost, after days of dramatic drops.

A result the president proudly touted.

“The biggest increase in the history of the stock market. That’s pretty good,” said Trump.

Democratic lawmakers are calling out the back and forth.

“This is government by chaos. He keeps changing things from day to day,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Democrats argue the uncertainty is bad for business.

The president issuing tariffs by tweet and nobody has any idea how they’re supposed to allocate capital for the next day, much less the next ten years.” Said Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.).

The administration says it is keeping its 10% baseline tariffs in place and there are still 25% tariffs being imposed on Canada and Mexico, as well as certain imports.