What exactly does President Donald Trump want tariffs to accomplish? There hasn’t been a single cohesive narrative from the White House about what Trump ultimately hopes his tariffs will achieve, and with the president’s attempt Tuesday afternoon to walk back from the brink of his all-out trade war with China,

President Donald Trump said he has not backed down on the 145% tariff on China and said reciprocal tariffs on other nations could resume within weeks.

He said he would impose tariffs on countries in two to three weeks if deals were not reached, backtracking on his promise to delay them by 90 days.