>>/70154/
The whole point is making a better trade deal than what the US currently has.
He imposes extremely high tariffs at first to get nations to scramble to the negotiation table. He knows these extremely high tariffs are only temporary to get them to negotiate a better deal, he knows he will inevitably have to lower the tariffs or it would destroy the global economy. So he cuts deals with other nations and they lower their tariffs on us and so he reciprocates, or in your words "chickens out" but the whole point was to cut a better deal for the US in the first place.
If it were up to people like yourself you'd allow nations to have high tariffs on the US while we basically don't have any what-so-ever and even bigger deficits in the future. That's not good for our economy long-term.