With Trump outright attacking Powell for a couple days and then suddenly reversing course, I'm left to believe one of the two:
1) Someone like McMillian, CEO of Walmart who met with Trump on Monday, was able to convince the president that continued aggression towards Powell was very bad for the US and worked against Trump's greater agenda.
OR
2) Trump is simply manipulating the market by broadcasting remarks to put pressure on financial areas followed by later comments to alleviate that strain (and this only makes sense if he / those close to him are taking advantage of the dips for personal gain).
I would say knowing what we know about Trump, Occam's Razor would lean towards the second option. Should that be right, even if Trump **doesn't** have plans to crash the USD his manipulation completely erodes trust and brings that consequence anyway. At what point do his tactics become obvious and his words no longer move the market? What are the long-term ramifications if this yoyo-ing happens a handful of times again over the next few weeks?