Time to play The Dog That Didn't Bark. In this version of the media game, we try to find that strangely silent and altogether unmentioned dog, who had been barking plenty until yesterday. 

The Wall Street Journal did a deep dive last night into Donald Trump's decision to pause 'reciprocal' tariffs against 75 trading partners yesterday while escalating the trade war with China. Trump himself attributed his change to the reaction in the bond markets, which had turned dangerously sour by Tuesday. However, the WSJ credits Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with convincing Trump to take some wins and focusing on building a trade coalition to marginalize China:

In this case, the extraordinary reversal was announced via Trump’s social-media platform just hours after so-called reciprocal tariffs officially went into effect. He tapped out the post in the Oval Office as he sat with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Trump also significantly raised tariffs on China. 

Shortly after Trump published his post, as markets rose, Bessent stood outside the entrance to the West Wing and explained that the move to pause some of the tariffs was discussed Sunday when the two men met. “He and I had a long talk,” Bessent said before a crowd of reporters. “This was his strategy all along.” ...

One key to the change: Trump’s decision to give Bessent more authority within his team of trade advisers, people close to the discussions said, along with the talks on Sunday. Bessent flew down Sunday to Florida and afterward was authorized to make comments publicly about deals, which heartened many people close to Trump who believed the Treasury secretary could find an exit ramp. When the two men returned to Washington together Sunday on Air Force One, Bessent encouraged Trump to focus on negotiations, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

That, I can buy, but it's that missing dog that bothers me. And perhaps we could even look for two missing dogs. 

Let's focus first on the barking dogs that do appear in this narrative. Scott Bessent gets 15 mentions in this overnight tick-tock on Trump's strategy shift on tariffs. JPMorgan Chase CEO gets six mentions; Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's name pops up three times. Even Gretchen Whitmer gets a mention as an influence on Trump's decision to move toward negotiation rather than stay the course on Liberation Day as announced a week earlier. Chief of Staff (and hailed Trump Whisperer) Susie Wiles barely appears at all, only to mention her phone getting flooded with calls over the past week. Even Mike Pence's former Chief of Staff Marc Short gets into the narrative, albeit only as an observer.

Guess who never comes up in this narrative? Peter Navarro. And for that matter, neither does Elon Musk. The two advisers had so publicly gone to war over the tariff strategy that the WSJ editorial board took the time to declare how important their feud over tariff policy had become just 30 hours before this report:

Mr. Musk is an erratic political messenger, but he’s right about at least two big things, and he also appears willing to speak truths that Mr. Trump is better off hearing. Mr. Musk believes in trade, and he recently said he hopes that the U.S. and Europe move “to a zero-tariff situation.” He has also pointed out, correctly, that most federal spending is for entitlement programs, though Mr. Trump has promised not to touch such benefits.

Broadly speaking, Mr. Musk represents a segment of Mr. Trump’s 2024 coalition—call it Silicon Valley MAGA—that is libertarianish and believes in freeing the U.S. economy to grow and dominate the future, benefiting all Americans. It favors pro-growth tax and regulatory policy and robust legal immigration to attract the world’s brightest minds.

Mr. Navarro is part of the Steve Bannon wing of MAGA, which wants to put U.S. industries behind the high tariff walls that Mr. Trump is now imposing. This faction distrusts corporations, especially Big Tech and pharma, and it doesn’t mind higher taxes and using government power to punish political enemies.

If all that is true -- and it is -- then why does neither man factor into the WSJ's analysis of what they report as a policy change on tariffs? That's especially true for Navarro, whose formal role is squarely in trade policy. Musk's role in the White House mainly concerns DOGE efforts to dismantle the deep state, but as perhaps the most prominent industrialist of our era, Musk's voice matters on trade policy too. And yet, neither key Trump adviser shows up in this narrative despite their very public feud on this very policy.

It's not as if Navarro had sat silently through Liberation Week, either. Navarro stupidly provoked the feud by claiming that Musk is only an "assembler" and has no expertise in manufacturing, an absurd claim that Musk rightly shredded. Navarro also publicly declared that all the tariffs were not open for negotiation and represented a complete reworking of the global order, as late as this weekend. Trump just cut that off at the knees yesterday, and the WSJ didn't think to wonder about that?

Their report today is likely accurate, as far as it goes. However, what truly appears to have happened is that Navarro lost Trump over the last few days, after Bessent, Lutnick, and especially Musk made it clear that Navarro didn't know his rear end from a fracking hole. Bessent especially appears to have won the trade argument, at least for now. And curiously, no one has heard a peep from Navarro since Trump began hinting at negotiations on Tuesday, with his eye on the bond market chaos that had begun to erupt. 

This could change in 90 days, but Trump has probably seen the folly of the full Navarro now, and wants to focus that energy on isolating China rather than the US. Time to start the clock on Navarro Departure Watch. And then we can watch for Musk's reaction on X/Twitter just for its entertainment value. 

Update: Amusing, or sad? We report, you decide:

🆕 @realpnavarro has started following @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/tPvMQYgnLH

— U.S. Politics Alert (@USPoliticsAlert) April 10, 2025