The president has backtracked repeatedly on his tariff policies, creating a whiplash with downsides and few clear benefits so far.

President Donald Trump‘s top aides spilled the beans Wednesday about how they convinced him to back off his sky-high tariffs on China. They boasted to The Washington Post that they used data showing how his base of support—in particular truckers and longshoremen—would be hurt by the levies to change his mind.