US President Donald Trump defended sweep tariffs on imports that have sent shockwaves through the global stock market, saying, “sometimes you have to take medicines to fix something.”
Speaking to reporters on board the Air Force late Sunday, he said his work and investment would return to the US and “become wealthier than ever.”
A senior Trump official stressed that tariffs announced last week will be implemented as planned and will carry out the fears of a recession.
Hours after Trump’s comments, stock markets plummeted into Asia early on Monday, with Japan’s Japan 225 falling 7.8%, while Hong Kong’s Hangsen lost more than 12%.
ReutersOn Friday, all three major US stock indices fell by more than 5%, with the S&P 500 down nearly 6% in the worst week of the US stock market since 2020.
According to state-owned media, the Saudi stock exchange is trading on Sunday.
US banking giant JP Morgan predicts that the probability of a US- and global recession is 60% following Trump’s tariff announcement.
ReutersSpeaking on a presidential plane on a flight to Washington, D.C., Trump said Europe and Asian countries are “around dying to make a deal.”
He also opposed a reporter’s investigation into “pain thresholds” for American consumers as fears of sudden price increases and market recession grew.
“I think your question is very stupid,” he told reporters. “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medication to fix something.”
In a series of television interviews prior to Sunday, Trump’s top officials also fell below the recent stock market waterfall.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent told NBC’s meeting that there was “no reason” to expect a recession as a result. “This is a adjustment process,” he added.
Bescent also argued that Trump “created the greatest leverage for himself, with over 50 countries approaching the administration about lowering non-tariff trade barriers, lowering tariffs and halting currency manipulation.”
Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS News that the 10% “baseline” tariff on all imports that came into effect a day ago would definitely be “staying for days and weeks.”
Lutnick said the steep mutual tariffs were still on track.
The higher custom tariffs in around 60 countries, known as “the worst criminals,” are scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday, April 9th.
When asked about these tariffs, Rutnick said they would come. “(Trump) announced it and he wasn’t kidding,” he said.
Lutnick also defended tariffs imposed on two small Antarctic islands, where only penguins live, and said it was to close “loop holes” for countries such as China to “transport.”
Elsewhere, Indonesia and Taiwan say they will not impose retaliatory tariffs over the weekend after the US announced a 32% collection on imports from both countries.
According to a letter seen by the news agency AFP and the New York Times, Vietnamese leaders have asked Lam to delay Trump’s 46% obligation to export Vietnam to the US “in at least 45 days.”
However, China announced on Friday that it would impose a 34% tariff on all US imports starting Thursday, April 10th.
British Prime Minister Kiel warned on Saturday that he “knowed that the world we knew was gone.”
Priority said the UK government will continue to push for economic transactions with the US, which avoided some of the tariffs.
A Downing Street spokesman added that his ancestors and new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had agreed over the phone that “a full trade war is not in any interest.”
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump for trade talks in Washington, D.C.
Netanyahu spoke to reporters when he boarded a US plane and said he would become “the first international leader to meet Trump” since the new tariffs were introduced.
He said this marked their “personal connections and our national connections that are very important at this point.”
ReutersIt was the nation’s largest opposition show since the president took office in January, and anti-Trump protests were held in American cities over the weekend.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. are among other cities, and protesters cite complaints about Trump’s agenda, ranging from social to economic issues.
