It is pretty clear that the Trump Administration has purposely created a situation that sowed confusion and obfuscation regarding the tariffs, specifically as they may or may not have pertained to gold and silver bullion.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          They wanted to drive up the prices, particularly for gold and seem to be the main buyer of gold(through bullion bank proxies). Some of it is likely to replace treasury gold that was leased out years ago from Ft. Knox and other US repositories.   They created distortions in the global markets that led to arbitrage and panic so that bankers and investors acted to front load any possible tariffs on gold and silver.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              They never had any intention of actually putting tariffs on those monetary metals and they could have stated that up front. The reason and fact that they didn’t exclude them right from the beginning of the whole drawn out tariff kabuki dance, tells you creating the rush into the metals, was the plan all along.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         He created the situation that set silver up for this most recent price smash. This selloff which is likely to continue on Monday was orchestrated to give the bullion banks that have been naked short all the paper contracts a last chance to cover most of their shorts. He is trying to let them get off with minor losses(which likely were offset by the huge profits they made by being long gold while this was playing out.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      So the 64 trillion dollar question, is why? One school believes that Trump, amongst others, realizes that the financial system based on fiat and credit, has run it’s course and is about to collapse sooner or later. He could just sit back and let it happen or orchestrate and try to manage the damage and destruction that a transition to a new system is likely to entail.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                The other school thinks Trump believes that the system can be saved with some minor tweaks and changes and can continue on for some time into the future. Regardless of which it is, and it might end up being a combination of both, tweaks and minor changes now, and a transition to a new system later, based on gold and silver backing whatever form of future dollar (digital or otherwise) we eventually end up with.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The one thing I am quite sure of,  is that this move regarding gold and silver, was done on purpose to end the fake paper gold and silver markets in both London and New York. More than even the fact that it is phony and there is no true price discovery, especially for silver, is the fact that it has allowed the Chinese, Indians and Russians to drain the physical metal. The US has plenty of gold and can always buy more. It is silver, which any country, especially a military leader and industrialized powerhouse, needs to survive and thrive.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Trump needed to pull this off subtly because the fiat bankers, the FED and the establishment politicians would never allow it to happen directly. Without the massive distortions and huge amounts of gold and silver that moved to NY over the last few months, the 50+ year existence of this rigged system was likely to continue for years to come.  Trump only has a few years window to collapse the paper ponzi scheme and replace it with a new sound money backed system.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Will it work?  We won’t know for sure until after silver soars through $36 and then $50 and or the Comex collapses and closes down, because they no longer have enough physical silver to perpetuate their phony paper operation.  He needed to end the scheme without actually coming out and announcing his intentions. After it eventually happens, I am sure he will reveal the reasons and steps he took to accomplish it.