Trump says tariffs are key to recovery despite market losses
Trump says tariffs will help U.S. recover despite Wall Street losses
President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his decision to impose sweeping tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners, despite a sharp sell-off in financial markets and concerns from business leaders.
Speaking to reporters, Trump emphasized that the move was necessary to correct decades of trade imbalances and protect American industries from what he called “unfair” foreign competition, reports Business Insider.
“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump said. “We have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen.”
The announcement, made on April 2, introduces a 10% baseline tariff on imports from 185 countries and aims to address America’s trade deficits with major economies, including China and the European Union. Trump declared the date “the day American industry was reborn.”
On Truth Social, Trump wrote that the U.S. had allowed massive trade surpluses to develop under the Biden administration and promised a swift reversal. “We are going to reverse it, and reverse it QUICKLY. Some day people will realize that tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing,” he said.
Market Response and Global Fallout
The markets responded swiftly and sharply. As of Sunday, the S&P 500 is down nearly 14% since the start of the year, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has dropped 19%. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 6% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 8.6% in early trading Monday.
Economists and analysts have warned that the tariffs could disrupt supply chains, raise consumer prices, and invite retaliation from other nations. Businesses that rely heavily on global trade are bracing for further volatility.
Tariffs have been a hallmark of Trump’s economic agenda since his first term, particularly in his trade war with China. On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump vowed to impose tariffs of 60% or more on Chinese imports and threatened a 200% duty on John Deere products if the company moved operations to Mexico. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,’” Trump said at an event in Chicago in October.
Additionally, U.S. customs officials began enforcing a significant new trade policy on April 5, 2024, implementing a 10% baseline tariff on most imports, marking the start of a broad-scale trade shift initiated by President Donald Trump.
