U.S. stocks spiked and then tumbled in a wild 30-minute window this morning, potentially due to a misinterpretation of a Fox News interview with Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council.
Word first spread around 10am ET that President Donald Trump would consider pausing the dramatic tariffs his administration just placed on trading partners around the world. CNBC even put the news on the chyron of its morning broadcast.
“HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA,” the headline read.
Investors rejoiced. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose an astonishing 5% in just seven minutes. But journalists and others were immediately confused about where the news came from.
“What is the actual source of the Hassett headline that’s being passed around?” one reporter asked on X.
“Does anyone have the clip of Hassett saying Trump is contemplating a 90 day tariff suspension, per a gazillion tweets,” a journalist from the Washington Post pleaded. “I don’t think this quote exists?”
It didn’t exist.
In the interview in question, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade asked Hassett if the president would consider a 90-day pause in implementing the tariffs.
“Er, Bill, Yep,” Hassett said, immediately answering, “The president is gonna decide what the president is gonna decide.”
Aggregators seemed to mistake Hassett’s throwaway “yep,” either part of a broadcast delay or a cut-off answer, as an answer to the actual question.
Sleuths on X eventually traced the confusion to a now-deleted tweet from Walter Bloomberg, a verified X user who posts business news headlines in all caps for his nearly 850,000 followers.
“HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA,” Bloomberg wrote.
In his answer to the question, Hassett didn’t mention China or confirm a tariff pause.
But the tweet racked up millions of views and spread online. The wording of it matches the headline CNBC posted on its chryon.
Fellow business news aggregator Unusual Whales also latched onto Bloomberg’s claim and reported the supposed 90-day pause was imminent, drawing a direct rebuke from the White House’s rapid response account.
“Reports that @POTUS is considering a 90-day pause on tariffs are FAKE NEWS,” the rapid response account wrote in a follow-up.
After the momentary freakout, the Dow is back to normal today, which is to say, down 1.7% due to tariff fears.
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