President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on most of his so-called reciprocal tariffs while his trade representative was in the middle of defending the policy on Capitol Hill.
The president reversed course from Wednesday morning, when he urged investors to "be cool" while his trade war played out, and lowered the 10-percent duties on most nations but increased tariffs on Chinese imports to 125 percent, which seemed to catch trade representative Jamieson Greer off-guard as he testified before the House Ways and Means Committee.
"It looks like your boss just pulled out the rug from under you," said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) in live video broadcast by CSPAN.
Greer appeared confused.
"When were you informed about this pause?" Horsford asked. "What do you know about this pause? What are the details?"
Greer was unable to provide anything, according to Aaron Fritschner, deputy chief of staff to Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), and Horsford hammered him again.
"So the President of the United States hasn't spoken to the U.S. trade representative about a global reordering of trade," Horsford said.