A few hours before Monday, the 7th of April, when some expect the market to fall significantly due to US tariffs, US President Donald Trump warned foreign governments that they would have to pay “a lot of money” to remove the sweeping tariffs and compared his policy – and the reaction to it – to the use of medicine, according to Reuters and Politico.
Asian shares fell across the board and US stock market futures fell sharply as investors feared that Trump’s tariffs could lead to higher prices, weaker demand and possibly a global recession.
Trump said he was not worried about losses, even though trillions of dollars have already been wiped off stock markets around the world.
“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,”
Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday evening. “What will happen to the markets, I can’t tell you. But our country is much stronger.”
The President insisted that he had not deliberately caused the market downturn to strengthen his negotiating position and doubled down that tariffs were the solution, despite the fact that, as the White House pointed out, consumers could face difficulties in the short term.
Trump spoke at a time when US stock futures fell on Sunday, suggesting that last week’s market slump could continue or become more severe on Monday.
Ignoring the negative consequences of Trump’s tariff plan, the President played golf in Florida over the weekend. On Saturday, Trump called on Americans to “hold tough” despite the market downturn in a post on Truth Social.
“It won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic,” he wrote.
Trump said he had spoken over the weekend with European and Asian leaders who hope to persuade him to cut tariffs as high as 50% that will come into force this week.
“They’re coming to the negotiating table. They want to talk, but there will be no talks unless they pay us a lot of money every year,” Trump said.
Taiwan, Israel, India and Vietnam have already expressed interest in negotiating with the US to avoid new tariffs. Taiwan has offered zero tariffs and more investment in the US, Israel plans to ask for tariff exemptions, India intends to negotiate instead of retaliating, and Vietnam agreed to negotiate a deal after being hit with some of the highest tariffs globally.
Trump called the discussion “very productive”.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters gathered in Washington and across the US on Saturday for some 1 200 “Hands Off” rallies, the largest protest against Trump and his billionaire ally, Elon Musk, since they began rapidly changing the government and expanding presidential powers.