<p>Just a few weeks ago, US President Donald Trump was ready to levy tariffs on basically every nation. Today, many of those tariffs have been paused or tempered. Additionally, this week he promised he will not be firing Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, despite his earlier criticism. Should we expect more backstepping from Trump in the face of economic data? And what do the voters think of it all? FT economics editor Sam Fleming joins alongside Jon McHenry, vice-president of the conservative pollster North Star Opinion Research.&nbsp;</p><br><p><strong>Mentioned in this podcast:</strong></p><p><a href="https://on.ft.com/3EGfqH0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trump claims to have received call from Xi Jinping and to have cut ‘200 deals’ on trade</a></p><p><a href="https://on.ft.com/3EFJsL8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Donald Trump says he has ‘no intention’ of firing Jay Powell</a></p><p><a href="https://ep.ft.com/newsletters/56a64b704f693a0300dfab7e/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sign up for the FT’s Swamp Notes newsletter here</a></p><br><p>Swamp Notes is produced by Katya Kumkova. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Special thanks to Pierre Nicholson.&nbsp;</p><br><p><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6defe77d-87e5-42aa-a36e-7f68e84cc99a" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com</strong></a></p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>