While the world’s markets were in free fall and panicking leaders were clogging up the White House switchboard, the man who instigated the historic crash was busy with more important matters.
Wall Street plunged even further on Monday after ending last week with two days of record drops, but the World Series–winning Los Angeles Dodgers were arriving at the White House, and Donald Trump likes nothing more than winners.
“Exciting!” the president posted on Truth Social 30 minutes after the S&P fell by 4.7 percent and the Dow dropped another 3 percent, with traders dreading that worse was yet to come.
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For a while, the market flirted with bear territory, triggered when a stock index falls 20 percent from its last peak, reflecting the turmoil in the markets in Asia and Europe.
Back in the White House after a long weekend in Mar-a-Lago, other pressing jobs were on the president’s to-do list. There was a military parade to plan through the streets of Washington to commemorate his birthday on June 14. And after a three-day golfing weekend in Florida, adding yet another championship to his résumé, he was always going to feel a touch weary.
Now he had to explain to everybody around the world that they were all being a bunch of wussies.
Trump was insistent that 50 world leaders were playing into his hands by trying to get in touch to talk tariffs over the weekend, and still the media was trying to make out his grand plan to make America wealthy again was a disaster.
Even Elon Musk was questioning the tariffs by posting a video of anti-tariff economist Milton Friedman, and JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon had finally raised his head above the parapet to warn of the specter of a recession and claim the package of levies will “likely increase inflation.”
Hedge fund boss Bill Ackman, one of his steadfast billionaire backers, was suggesting a 90-day pause.
They clearly didn’t get it. Time for a social media pep talk from the president.
“Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place,” Trump wrote on Truth Social and X.
“This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate. They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA! Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
That was the “good news.”
“What’s going to happen to the markets, I can’t tell you,” Trump said on Sunday night after flying back from Florida. “I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
The weekend’s exertions appeared to have left Trump in a more testy mood on Monday morning as he followed up with a swipe at the naysayers who seemed to think the market mayhem around the world somehow suggested that his tariff plan was a bad idea.
He even invented a new party for these non-believers—the “Panican” party.
“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!” he wrote.
He may have been trying to persuade himself, but he didn’t win over nervy investors.
The markets steadied and even rose 34 percent before falling back again, as the volatility wreaked havoc on the nation’s 401(k)s.
Trump followed up by posting five videos supporting the tariffs—three from Fox and two from Newsmax—and one from ABC News reporting how many leaders were reaching out to him.
There was just time to quash a “fake news” story suggesting Trump was going to hit the pause button on the tariffs (a rumor spread by a “Panican,” no doubt) and double down on the Chinese with a threat to increase the levies on Beijing by 50 percent.
If anybody thought he was backing down, this would show them. China was warned to pull back from their retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. by Tuesday or risk facing tariffs totaling 104 percent on their products.
Then it was time for some fun with Shohei Ohtani and the guys (Trump’s note to self: don’t mention Japan tariff rate). He had no choice but to discuss the 17 percent levy on Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a lunchtime meeting.
Depending on how that went, Trump could decide on whether to give him a personal invite to the birthday parade.
No doubt, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, a Trump first-term appointment, has been crossed off the list. Unless, of course, he suddenly changes his mind and cuts interest rates to (maybe) give the overheating economy, and the president, a break.
