America’s stock exchanges melted down on Friday – continuing a weeks-long rout which has pushed Wall Street into bear market territory and sent recession odds soaring.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 2,231 points on Friday – losing 5.5% of its value. The Nasdaq composite lost nearly 963 points – or 5.82% of its value. Finally, the S&P 500 dropped more than 322 points – or 5.97% of its value.
The impetus for the latest selloff? Reciprocal tariffs – or taxes on imports – levied by the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump. The tariffs were announced by Trump on April 2, 2025 – a date he dubbed “Liberation Day.”
“To the many investors coming into the United States and investing massive amounts of money, my policies will never change,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before!”
So far, though, Trump’s tariffs have precipitated a massive market selloff that has cost investors more than $6 trillion.
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Undeterred, Trump shrugged off China’s decision to impose an additional 34% tariff on all U.S. imports in response to the new American levies.
“China played it wrong,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do.”
Still, even congressional Republicans are beginning to express concern about the potential political consequences of Trump’s bold economic gamble.
“If we go into a recession, particularly a bad recession, 2026, in all likelihood, politically, would be a bloodbath,” U.S. senator Ted Cruz said Friday on his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. “You would face a Democrat House and you might even face a Democrat Senate.”
“If we’re in a scenario thirty days from now, sixty days from now, ninety days from now with massive American tariffs and massive tariffs on American goods and every other country on earth, that is a terrible outcome,” Cruz added.
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RELATED | TRUMP PUSHES FED TO CUT RATES
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Trump did get some good economic news on Friday when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the American economy created an unexpectedly strong 228,000 new jobs during the month of March. That was the highest employment print (.pdf) since December – and was well above the 117,000 new jobs created in February.
With recession odds looming due to the tariff spat, Trump reiterated his call for Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell to give the economy a boost by cutting interest rates.
“This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He is always ‘late,’ but he could now change his image, and quickly. Energy prices are down, interest rates are down, inflation is down, even eggs are down 69%, and jobs are UP, all within two months – A BIG WIN for America.”
“CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!” Trump concluded.
How is all of this going to end? Your guess is as good as ours. FITSNews wrote last November on the dire economic situation Trump inherited – and the limited options at his disposal to address it. Clearly he is going “all in” on his tariff/tax cut/rate cut approach.
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5 comments
“Trump did get some good economic news on Friday when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the American economy created an unexpectedly strong 228,000 new jobs during the month of March.”
Somehow I think Will will be ignoring the BLS revision when it comes out, unlike when they came out during every month of the previous administration.
Have the penguins caved on the tariffs? Stable genius!
When it fails he will blane that lunatic Lutnick and that bozo Besset. Or he could juust blame it all on Sleepy Joe!
This is intentional. Trump is driving down the market so that he and his billionaire buddies can buy up stock cheap. This is the biggest scam in history. The top 1% will not be affected while millions of middle class Americans see a drastic reduction in their lifestyle. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, Trump golf’s while America burns.
Our economy was likely to go into recession, regardless of tariffs or who the president is. When all of the stimulus checks first went out, Americans’ personal savings balances were at all time highs. All of that extra cash in the money supply created massive inflation. Higher prices did not really dampen our country’s unquenchable thirst for consumption, so we kept spending. Now, savings balances are at an all time low, and credit card balances are at an all time high. With no cash or available credit, spending will have to slow. Wage growth hasn’t kept up with inflation, so it’s going to be hard to pay for essentials and keep up with payments on all of the outstanding credit. Credit card defaults will increase, so banks will probably be the first to lose. It’s not really a question of whether we have a recession coming. It’s a matter of how bad it will be.
I cannot say I agree with all of your proposition, however, even if you are right the Tariffs still make things worse. The Tariffs will drive up prices even without an increase in demand. Generally, the Fed can stave off or minimize recession, by lowering interest rates to stimulate the economy. This does not cause massive inflation because falling demand drives down prices and the stimulus restores the demand. But with Trump’s Tariffs prices will go up while demand is falling. This will prevent the Fed from lowering interest rate to stimulate the struggling economy, and the recession will be much worse and longer.
This is one of the dumbest thing a President has done in the last century.