“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!),” the president wrote on Truth Social half an hour before Wall Street opened for trading.
“Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”
Trump’s message did nothing to stanch the markets’ slide, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 both plunged more than 2% in the first 30 minutes of the trading day. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, meanwhile, was down 1.65% as of 10 a.m.
Wall Street briefly recovered after a report circulated that the president was considering a 90-day pause on the implementation of almost all duties — but turned back down after the White House insisted no such move was under consideration.
The message of patience was the first time the president has directly told Americans not to panic after trillions of dollars were wiped off the stock market on Thursday and Friday.
The S&P 500 fell 10.5% over those two days, its most significant drop since March 2020. The Nasdaq fell by 11.4% while the Dow dipped 8.1%.
The president backed his 10% minimum base tariff and higher reciprocal tariffs package in a string of Truths on Monday — while indicating he is open to negotiating with certain countries to bring the levies down.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will send his “top team to negotiate” the 24% tariff Trump imposed on the US ally, the president wrote.
“Countries from all over the World are talking to us. Tough but fair parameters are being set. Spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a top team to negotiate! They have treated the U.S. very poorly on Trade. They don’t take our cars, but we take MILLIONS of theirs. Likewise Agriculture, and many other ‘things.’ It all has to change, but especially with CHINA!!!”
The negotiations will not extend to China — which retaliated with a 34% tariff on the US — Trump told reporters late Sunday, until the US solves its “trade deficit” with Beijing.
He also said he has spoken to “a lot of Europeans, Asians, all over the world” over the weekend, who are “dying to make a deal.”
Trump has not stated a timeframe by which he would be willing to make a deal to reduce the levies.
“I think your question is so stupid. I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he told a reporter Sunday evening when asked how far the market would have to drop before he negotiates.
Trump has not stated a timeframe by which he would be willing to make a deal to reduce the levies.
Meanwhile, White House staffers have delivered mixed messages on how long the tariffs might last.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has promised that “trillions of dollars of factories are going to be built in America” due to the economic shift towards domestic manufacturing, while National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett has claimed that more than “50 countries” have reached out to Trump about negotiating lifting the tariffs.
Senior trade counselor Peter Navarro also told Americans not to panic in an interview that aired Sunday.
“You can’t lose money unless you sell and right now the smart strategy is not to panic, just stay in because we are going to have the biggest boom in the stock market we’ve ever seen,” Navarro told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” before predicting: “We will hit 50,000 on the Dow by the end of this term.”
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