Two days after shaking the economy by announcing widespread tariffs, US President Donald Trump headed to play golf at Mar-A-Lago, a private club in Palm Beach, Florida, despite the fact that selling financial markets around the world is being criticised for more scary gear.
Before heading to the private golf course, Trump wrote on social media: “This is the perfect time to get rich.”
Investors are not buying that message.
The S&P 500 fell 5.7% in Wall Street’s worst crisis as the Covid pandemic crash deepened after China coincided with a massive Trump tariff rise announced earlier this week. The move will raise interest in a trade war that could end in a recession that hurts everyone. Even reports that exceeded expectations regarding the US job market, which are usually monthly economic highlights, were not enough to stop the slide.
Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 2,034 points (5%), while Nasdaq Composite is 5.6% lower with an hour left in the trade.
So far, few financial market winners have been won from the trade war. European stocks fell by about 5%. Crude oil prices have fallen to their lowest levels since 2021. Other fundamental components of economic growth, such as copper, have also slipped prices based on concerns that the trade war would weaken the global economy.
The central question for the future is will the trade war cause a global recession? If so, the stock price will need to go down even more than you already have. The S&P 500 is down about 17% from its February record set.
Investors don’t expect volatility to sink quickly.
“In reality, the market will be under pressure until the policy or evidence that actual negotiations are ongoing,” says Cathy Jones, chief bond strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research in New York.
In addition to fears in the market on Friday, comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said tariffs are “significantly larger than expected” and are likely to cause more inflation, at least in the short term.
But Trump describes his policy as a painful yet necessary step to encourage businesses to move their businesses to the United States. “I think we need to give this a try and I think we have a high confidence rate that will work,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent told conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in an interview released Friday.
The president on Friday morning promised to protect himself and maintain his course on true social, social media platforms.
“For many investors who come to the US and invest huge amounts of money, my policy will never change,” he wrote.
Experts have criticised tariffs harshly, but Trump has found some support for Tiktok. The president shared a video claiming “Trump is crashing the stock market” and “he’s doing it intentionally,” saying, “the secret game he’s playing, and it can make you rich.”
The video featured a supposed quote from legendary investor Warren Buffett that praised Trump, but Buffett’s company issued a statement saying it was manufactured. The video also said Trump’s goal is to drive the Federal Reserve and lower interest rates.
“This is the perfect time,” he wrote, for Powell to cut interest rates. “Cut your interest rates, Jerome, and stop doing politics!”
Aim to reduce transactions
Foreign leaders scrambled in response to Trump’s announcement this week, and the president tried to assault and cut trade.
He spoke to Vietnamese leaders and Lam and said he insisted that if Vietnam could do business with the United States, he wanted to eliminate tariffs on US goods.
He also criticized China for the true society by announcing its own tariffs on US imports.
“China got it wrong, they panic, he wrote.
Republicans have suggested that Trump’s policies will mark the beginning of a parley with foreign countries.
“The president is a deal maker, if nothing else, and he intends to continue dealing with each of them and country by country,” said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso. He added that Treasury Secretary Becent told Senate Republicans this week that unless other countries retaliate, tariffs will be “a high-level mark with the ultimate goal of reducing them.”
Meanwhile, Trump also celebrated a new report showing that the US had added 228,000 jobs in March, beating expectations. The numbers were snapshots of the economy before the tariffs were announced, but Trump claimed to prove that he already showed his movement was working.
“Good luck,” he wrote. “We can’t lose!!”