President Donald Trump of the United States has dismissed the market chaos triggered by his extensive tariffs, comparing the actions to “medicine” as anxious investors carried out a considerable sell-off of global stocks.
“I want everything to succeed, but there are times when you must take medicine to remedy an issue,” Trump commented to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
“Other nations have treated us terribly due to incompetent leadership that permitted this to occur. They seized our businesses, took our money, and took our jobs.”
Firmly defending his so-called “reciprocal tariffs”, Trump stated he would not relent until other countries equalized their trade with the United States.
The US president claimed he had spoken to numerous foreign leaders over the weekend who were “eager to strike a deal.”
“I told them, ‘We are not going to sustain deficits with your country’,” said Trump.
“We cannot do that, because a deficit, in my view, amounts to a loss. We will aim for surpluses, or at the very least, break even.”
Trump’s remarks came as global stock markets continued to decline amid concerns over a potential global trade war and an economic recession.
On Monday, Taiwan’s benchmark TAIEX and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index each fell by around 10 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped nearly 9 percent.
In Singapore, the Straits Times Index fell over 7 percent.
South Korea’s KOSPI decreased by more than 5 percent, and Australia’s ASX 200 experienced a roughly 6 percent drop.
US stocks were expected to see further significant losses when Wall Street reopened, following a two-day downturn last week that erased over $6 trillion in market capitalization.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 were down 2.70 percent on Sunday, with those for the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 falling by 3.55 percent.
Starting Sunday, the US initiated a base tariff of 10 percent on imports, with higher duties ranging from 11 percent to 50 percent scheduled to come into effect on Wednesday.
This increase in tariffs is anticipated to affect both US adversaries and allies similarly.
Retaliatory measures
China, America’s primary strategic competitor and its third-largest trading partner, is confronted with a 34 percent tariff, while the European Union, Japan, and South Korea are preparing for tariffs ranging from 20 percent to 25 percent.
Last week, China revealed a series of countermeasures, which include a 34 percent tariff on all US imports and restrictions on the export of certain critical minerals, while the EU is compiling a list of US goods to target with increased tariffs.
Some of the US’s other trading allies, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Indonesia, and Taiwan, have, for now, dismissed the notion of reciprocal measures.
On Sunday, Trump expressed his willingness to negotiate with China, but emphasized that any agreement would hinge on the nation reducing its substantial trade surplus with the United States.
“We are dealing with a significant deficit problem with China,” Trump stated.
In light of the turmoil, analysts have significantly increased the likelihood of the US entering into a recession within the next year.
Last week, JPMorgan raised the probability of a US recession to 60 percent, while S&P Global estimated the likelihood to be between 30 and 35 percent.
JPMorgan’s head of economic research, Bruce Kasman, noted in a report titled “There Will Be Blood” that “the scale and disruptive nature of US trade policies, if maintained, could push a still robust US and global expansion into recession.”
Lawrence Summers, who served as treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, remarked that the markets are responding to “what may be the most detrimental economic policy” enacted by the US since World War II.
“Current reactions in future markets indicate a genuine disappointment that the President is doubling down on his mistakes,” Summers said on X.
Officials from the Trump administration have minimized the threat of an economic decline despite the market tumult.
“A recession isn’t inevitable… we can’t predict how the market will react over a day or a week,” US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said during his appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
“Our focus is on establishing long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity, and I believe the previous administration was steering us toward financial disaster.”
