US President Donald Trump likened the measure to “drugs” as panicked investors continued to sell massive global stocks as he wiped out the market turmoil caused by his drastic tariffs.
“I don’t want anything to get off, but sometimes I have to take my medicine to fix something,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force 1 on Sunday.
“We’ve been treated badly by other countries because we had the stupid leadership that allowed this to happen. They took our business, they took our money, they took our jobs.”
Trump has delved into what is called “mutual tariffs” and said he will not retreat unless other countries balance trade with the US.
The US president said he spoke to many foreign leaders who were “trying to make a deal” over the weekend.
“I said, ‘We’re not going to have a deficit in your country,'” Trump said.
“For me, it’s because deficits are losses. We either have surplus or at worst, we’ll break.”
Trump’s comments came as global stocks continued to plummet amid the fear of a global trade war and economic downturn.
Taiwan’s benchmarks Taiex and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plummeted around 10% on Monday, while Japan’s Nikko 225 dug almost 9%.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index fell by more than 7%.
Korea’s Kospi fell by more than 5%, while Australia’s ASX 200 fell by about 6%.
Once Wall Street resumed, U.S. stocks were set at even more sharp losses, with last week’s two-day defeat wiping out market value of over $6 trillion.
Futures tied to the benchmark S&P500 fell 2.70% on Sunday, while those tied to the high-tech NASDAQ-100 fell 3.55%.
The US began to impose a 10% baseline tariff on Sunday imports.
Higher tariffs are set to strike both US rivals and allies.
Retaliation measures
China, the US’s major strategic rival and third-largest trading partner, faces tariffs of 34%, while the European Union, Japan and South Korea are withstanding tariffs of 20-25%.
China announced numerous measures last week, including a 34% tariff on 34% imports and restrictions on exports of several important minerals, but the EU is preparing a list of US imports to target targets with a higher obligation.
On Sunday, Trump said he was willing to negotiate with China, but that any deal would depend on the country to eliminate large-scale trade surplus with the United States.
“We have a huge deficit problem with China,” Trump said.
Some of the other US trading partners, including the UK, Australia, Indonesia and Taiwan, have excluded measures against Tart for the time being.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be the first world leader to raise tariffs in face to face with Trump on Monday when he visited the White House for the second time since the US president’s election.
“The two will discuss tariff issues, efforts to return hostages, miscellaneous Israeli relations, the threat of Iran and the fight with the International Criminal Court,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Amidst the chaos, analysts have sharply raised the chance that the US will enter a recession within the next 12 months.
JPMorgan raised the US recession chance to 60% last week, while S&P Global shows a 30-35% chance.
“The scale and destructive impact of US trade policy are sufficient to deprive the still healthy US and global expansion,” said Bruce Kassman, head of economic research at JP Morgan, in a memo entitled “There is blood.”
Lawrence Summers, who served as Treasury Secretary under Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the market has responded to what the US has enacted since World War II.
“What’s happening in the future market now suggests there’s a real disappointment that the president is doubling his error,” Summers said in X.
Trump administration officials have reduced the risk of a recession despite market turmoil.
“There’s no need for a recession… who knows how the market will react in a week,” U.S. Treasury secretary Scott Bescent told NBC’s convention Sunday.
“What we’re looking at is to build a long-term economic foundation for prosperity, and I think the previous administration led us on the course towards a financial disaster.”