President Donald Trump reacted for the primary time on Thursday to the fallout from his tariff announcement, which included markets nosediving and international leaders threatening retaliation.
Trump had no public occasions on his schedule a day after his dramatic unveiling of extreme tariffs in opposition to just about all U.S. buying and selling companions, however he did take a single query as he left the White Home Thursday afternoon for a visit to a golf occasion in Miami.
“Markets right this moment are means down … How’s it going?” a reporter requested the president.
“I feel it is going very nicely,” Trump responded. “It was an operation. I like when a affected person will get operated on and it is a large factor. I mentioned this is able to precisely be the best way it’s.”
Trump continued to mission confidence and mentioned nations to be affected are actually making an attempt to see if they’ll “make a deal.”
“The markets are going to increase, the inventory goes to increase, the nation goes to increase, and the remainder of the world needs to see is there any means they’ll make a deal.” Trump mentioned. “They’ve taken benefit of us for a lot of, a few years. For a few years we have been on the unsuitable facet of the ball. And I am going to inform you what, I feel it should be unbelievable.”
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters previous to departing from the South Garden of the White Home in Washington, DC, on April 3, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Later, talking to reporters on Air Drive One, Trump once more mentioned he is prepared to make a deal regardless of White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt and others earlier within the day showing to say the tariffs wouldn’t be modified
“The tariffs give us nice energy to barter,” Trump mentioned. “All the time have, I’ve used them very nicely within the first administration, as you noticed, however now we’re taking it to a complete new stage, as a result of it is a worldwide scenario, and it is very thrilling to see.”
Requested if he had been open to cope with these international locations calling him, he answered, “Effectively, it relies upon. If any person mentioned that we’ll offer you one thing that is so phenomenal, so long as they’re giving us one thing, that is good.”
Earlier Thursday, Trump administration officers had been deployed to cope with the fallout on the morning information exhibits.
“The president made it clear yesterday, this isn’t a negotiation. This can be a nationwide emergency,” Leavitt mentioned on CNN.
He is all the time prepared to choose up the telephone to reply calls, however he laid out the case yesterday for why we’re doing it this and these international locations all over the world have had 70 years to do the suitable factor by the American individuals, they usually have chosen to not,” Leavitt added.
“I do not assume there’s any probability that President Trump is gonna again off his tariffs,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick mentioned on the community.
World leaders are weighing their response to Trump’s historic levies, a few of which go into impact on April 5 and others on April 9.
China, which goes to be hit with a whopping 54% tariff fee, urged the U.S. to “instantly cancel its unilateral tariff measures and correctly resolve variations with its buying and selling companions by means of equal dialogue.”
Vice President JD Vance arrives to attend President Donald Trump’s remarks on reciprocal tariffs at an occasion within the Rose Backyard of the White Home in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Domestically, shares plunged in early buying and selling on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Common plummeted 3.75%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 5.75% and the S&P 500 tumbled 4.4%.
Vice President JD Vance, earlier than the market selloff, acknowledged that Trump’s large new tariffs will imply a “large change” for People. Trump, forward of Wednesday’s announcement, had admitted there may very well be some short-term ache.
“President Trump is taking this economic system in a distinct path. He ran on that. He promised it. And now he is delivering. And sure, this can be a large change. I am not going to shrink back from it, however we would have liked a giant change,” Vance instructed “Fox & Pals.”
Leavitt, too, defended the coverage as Trump “delivering on his promise to implement reciprocal tariffs” throughout an look on CNN.
“To anybody on Wall Road this morning, I might say belief in President Trump. This can be a president who’s doubling down on his confirmed financial formulation from his first time period,” she mentioned.
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters exterior the West Wing of the White Home in Washington, Mar. 27, 2025.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Neither Vance nor Leavitt instantly addressed the elevated prices economists say U.S. shoppers are all however sure to face or how they’d assist People.
“What I might ask of us to understand right here is that we’re not going to sort things in a single day,” Vance mentioned. “We’re combating as shortly as we will to repair what was left to us, however it’s not going to occur instantly.”
Requested about destructive enterprise response, Lutnick instructed CNN, “they are not counting the factories” that he claimed can be constructed within the U.S. in consequence.
“Let Donald Trump run the worldwide economic system. He is aware of what he is doing,” Lutnick mentioned.
Trump on Wednesday mentioned jobs will come “roaring again.”
However requested on Air Drive One on Thursday how lengthy it will take to get American manufacturing to the place he’d prefer to see it, Trump mentioned, “Effectively, to illustrate it is a two-year course of. You already know, they begin a plant, they usually’re large crops.”
He continued. “We’re giving them approval to additionally, in lots of circumstances, to construct the electrical facility with it. So, you’ve got electrical technology and the plant, they usually’re large crops. Now, the excellent news is some huge cash for them, they usually can construct them quick, however they’re nonetheless very large crops. I might all the time say it will take a year-and-a-half to 2 years.
