A revolution that includes a "pause" button is not a revolution. It's a debacle, a disorderly improvisation, even if its authors refuse to acknowledge the obvious. This became clear on Wednesday, April 9, after Donald Trump announced a 90-day suspension of tariffs on about sixty countries, which had been staged a week earlier at the White House as a historic turning point for the United States.

In a message on his Truth Social network, the US president justified this pause by the supposedly constructive attitude of the affected countries. "More than 75," according to him, had contacted his administration to enter into trade negotiations. Following his "strong suggestion," they had not decided to take retaliatory measures – which is false, starting with the European Union (EU).

Consequently, Trump, who once described himself as a "stable genius," chose to hear them, maintaining a simple general floor rate of 10% on imported foreign products. A protectionist barrier remains, indiscriminate, but it is far from the envisaged tariff bludgeoning that threatened to destabilize the global economy.

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