Key Points
Sunday evening, President Donald Trump stated, “but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” adding that he is not purposefully orchestrating the ongoing sell-off.
In spite of the recent market turmoil, he cited the trade deficit with China as the justification for continuing with his tariff plan.
The remarks were made as U.S. stock futures fell, indicating significant losses at Monday’s open.
President Donald Trump said Sunday evening that he is not intentionally engineering the ongoing stock market sell-off, but said little to try and dissuade it.When asked about the markets, Trump told reporters on Air Force One Sunday night, “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
@abcnews Pres. Trump said “it’s going very well” after stocks plummeted in the wake of his sweeping tariffs announcement. “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country’s going to boom,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Thursday for Miami. The Dow slid nearly 4% by the closing bell Thursday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined almost 6%. #trump #stocks #tariffs #economy #news #abcnews
The remarks were made as U.S. stock futures fell on Sunday evening, with Dow Jones Industrial average futures falling 4.1%. These losses accelerated from Thursday and Friday and suggested that more selling would likely occur on Monday morning. In spite of the recent market turmoil, he cited the trade deficit with China as the justification for continuing with his tariff plan. He stated, “We must resolve our trade deficit with China.”
“We have a trillion-dollar trade deficit with China, hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China. And unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal.”
He continued, “I’m willing to deal with China, but they have to solve their surplus.” He added that he spoke with European and Asian leaders over the weekend on the tariffs rolled out by his administration, which are expected to take effect in the coming week.
Trump’s comments echo those made by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who on Sunday said the administration will remain steadfast in its plans for reciprocal tariffs on major U.S. trading partners, even in the face of the global stock market sell-off. White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said the stock market drop is not part of an intentional strategy.
After the president himself shared a link to a video on his Truth Social account that claimed the president was intentionally causing the markets to fall as part of his larger economic plans, Trump and his team made their remarks. The video, which initially appeared on TikTok in March, was shared by Trump on April 4, two days after his tariffs announcement.
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