Washington
CNN
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President Donald Trump was waiting for the final time of the Wall Street deal to be made public on Tuesday. He left the oval office and forcedly followed the whipping tariff decision that shook the financial markets.
“We had the largest economy in history,” Trump said, recalling his first administration. “In my opinion, this economy is trying to blow it away.”
He was asked if he believed the US was heading into a recession and said, “I don’t see it at all.”
His comments have done little to calm the market. The stock was once again disappointed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been cutting previous losses, fell 1.14% a day, down 350 points in the final hour.
“The market is rising and they’re going to go down, but what do you know?” Trump said. “We must rebuild our country.”
Long before the president appeared on the South Lawn, his words had already scared investors. The market sank again after threatening new rounds of tariffs in a social media post early Tuesday.
As he pursues a hard-hit trade agenda and announces plans for a new almost-day tariff, Trump sends uncertainty to the economy, seeing their political or financial wealth in balance, even from some of his allies.
In a speech with some of America’s top business leaders on Tuesday night, Trump dismissed concerns from financial markets with rolls.
Reporters were escorted from the business round table event after one question, but two participants said the president’s remarks shed new light on his tariff plans.
“There was no new clarity or certainty,” one business leader told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid alienation in the White House.
The president insisted he was not separated from his mutual tariff plans for April, and another person at the meeting said he was describing a familiar ground session Trump had previously covered.
Earlier that day, the White House touted investments that created fresh work and denounced the Biden administration’s policies.
But some Republicans, along with executives and economists, have warned that Trump’s strict approach to America’s biggest trading partner could do much damage to economic improvements.
“The market is fed up with infuriation and disgusting at the trade policy impasse. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management, told CNN in a phone interview Tuesday. “There’s so much uncertainty that it’s impossible for investors to have confidence.”
However, the president tried to provide a sense of security to the American company, whose shares fell 15% on Monday, losing 45% since the start of the year and rebounded on Tuesday.
“I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning. As a show of confidence and support for truly amazing American Elon Musk,” Trump posted on social media.
Later that afternoon he stepped out of his oval office into bright sunlight and sized up some Tesla models (red, silver, blue) that were parked in the driveway south of the White House. As Musk sees, the president saw the electric car a lot the moment it unfolded like a Tesla promotion.
“We have to celebrate those who have the courage to do this,” Trump said. “He is a patriot and should not be punished.”
It is not clear how carefully planned Trump’s militant approach to tariffs is. His Tuesday threat to increase Canada’s steel and aluminum duties is due to take effect Wednesday and could not be raised to formal documents in advance, officials said.
And during his appearance with Musk, Trump fluctuated again, saying he would probably “probably” turn the higher tariff course into the reverse course. The White House later confirmed that planned tariffs had returned to 25%, and Ontario agreed to suspend a 25% surcharge for electricity exports to Michigan, Minnesota and New York.
Since Trump took office 50 days ago, there have been few weekday afternoons when he invited reporters to the West Wing to hold no cameras. Monday was one of them. As the stock market fell, Trump stayed behind closed doors, hosting high-tech executives and vowed at his new Secret Service chief without cameras rolling. That was Trump’s own comment a day ago, refusing to rule out a recession, markets sank, and Monday’s silence was even more noteworthy.
For a president who boasts record-breaking moments after record, he has gained an unusually vague tone about the slowdown in the economy. Shortly after taking office, he spoke about “short-term pain.” In a speech to Congress last week, he acknowledged the prospect of “a bit of a disturbance” in the economy, adding that “it’s not that much.”
But Trump has heightened the uncertainty that the market has rejected him every day, as he has not yet taken the bully’s pulpit in the way he has other issues.
Trump’s aides have quickly downplayed the fear of the recession, suggesting instead that new tariffs will cause instantaneous “disturbance” as world trade is reorganized against the United States.
“Since President Trump was elected, industry leaders have unleashed American energy with their commitment to tariffs, deregulation and investment to create thousands of new jobs,” he said. “President Trump has brought historic job, wage and investment growth in his first term and plans to do so again in his second term.”
But for a businessman who has long seen the stock market rise as a key indicator of economic success, Wall Street’s sharp decline has raised questions about Trump’s repeated claims that he has not paid attention.
“You can’t really see the stock market,” Trump told the Fox business in an interview aired over the weekend. His comments declined to rule out the recession and were moved by a new wave of unrest, leading to the biggest market decline of the year.
That advice from Trump, which even many of his allies and advisers personally admit that they don’t fully believe, is at odds with what he said during his campaign and during his transition to power.
“I don’t want to say this, it’s too braggadocios, but I’ll say it anyway – the Trump effect,” he recounts the crowded rally the night before his inauguration, applauding from his supporters. “The stock market has skyrocketed since the election.”
Today, the Trump effect is seen in a much different perspective. One of his favorite old tabloids he religiously read, the New York Post said in Tuesday’s edition, “Buckle-up! The markets charge as Trump leads the economy to a wild ride.”
Trump remained non-characteristically from public views on Monday, which began to raise questions among Republican donors, investors and business leaders who scrambled to explain the sudden economic whiplash.
In his second presidency, Trump has far less opposed to his administration, particularly those who may offer different economic views about tariffs.
“Taxes will be the biggest thing we’ve ever done as a country,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “We intend to enrich our country again.”
In Trump’s view, the disruption caused by his tariffs is a necessary step to sending American manufacturing and revising decades of bad decisions on trade that led to the movement of US core industries overseas.
His whip saw tariffs have urged foreign governments to be out of balance and to keep the leaders reserved over the phone.
Tariffs are the required income drivers to be used to pay the new tax cuts he promised as a candidate in Trump’s plans and are an extension of the tax cuts he wants to approve later this year.
Trump took office by inheriting rising wages and consumer spending, lower unemployment and inflation, as it appears to have slower unemployment and inflation, although higher than the consumer and the Federal Reserve.
All presidents, on their respective terms, are frustrated with the relative difficulties of directly improving the economy from an oval office. They are responsible for the public, but many of the factors that affect the economy that Americans feel are under control.
But for Trump, many of his most pressing economic concerns can be linked directly to his policies.
The new tariffs could exacerbate the already high prices he himself believed he helped him win. Large government layoffs can boost unemployment rates while also causing workers to uncertainly pull back spending about their future. Additionally, large-scale deportation can lead to rising costs for industries that rely on migrant labor, including construction and healthcare.
All uncertainty can help businesses to refrain from hiring and investing and push down growth forecasts.
But for Trump, uncertainty appears to be part of the plan.
“They always say that. “We want to be clear,” he said in a business interview with Fox. “They have enough clarity.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
