Trump calls his tariffs economic ‘medicine’ after trillions wiped out from U.S. stock market

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said foreign governments would have to pay “a lot of money” to lift sweeping tariffs that he characterized as “medicine,” as financial markets indicated another week of steep losses could be in store.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated he was not concerned about market losses that have already wiped out nearly $6 trillion US in value from U.S. stocks.

“I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said.

Trump said that over the weekend, he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia, who hope to convince him to lower tariffs as high as 50 per cent due to take effect this week.

“They are coming to the table. They want to talk, but there’s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis,” he said.

Trump’s tariff announcement last week jolted economies around the world, triggering retaliatory levies from China and sparking fears of a global trade war and recession.

On Sunday morning talk shows, the president’s top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the United States in the global trade order.

They also tried to minimize the economic shocks from last week’s tumultuous rollout. Wall Street stock futures opened sharply lower on Sunday, in a sign of further turbulence.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said more than 50 nations had started negotiations with the U.S. since last Wednesday’s announcement.

“He’s created maximum leverage for himself,” Bessent said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Neither Bessent nor the other officials named the countries or offered details about the talks. But simultaneously negotiating with multiple governments could pose a logistical challenge for the Trump administration and prolong economic uncertainty.

Bessent said there was “no reason” to anticipate a recession, citing stronger-than-anticipated U.S. jobs growth last month, before the tariffs were announced.

JPMorgan economists now estimate the tariffs will result in full-year U.S. gross domestic product declining by 0.3 per cent, down from an earlier estimate of 1.3 per cent growth, and that the unemployment rate will climb to 5.3 per cent from the current 4.2 per cent.

The Republican president spent the weekend in Florida, playing golf and posting a video of his swing to social media on Sunday.

Some countries seek reprieve

U.S. customs agents began collecting Trump’s unilateral 10 per cent tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday. Higher “reciprocal” tariff rates of 11 to 50 per cent on individual countries are due to take effect on Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. ET. Some governments have already signalled a willingness to engage with the U.S. to avoid the duties.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the U.S., pledging to remove trade barriers and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their U.S. investments.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would seek a reprieve from a 17 per cent tariff on the country’s goods during a planned meeting with Trump on Monday.

An Indian government official told Reuters the country does not plan to retaliate against a 26 per cent tariff and said talks were underway with the U.S. over a possible deal.

Markets look likely to tank further

Tariff-stunned markets face another week of potential turmoil after the worst week for U.S. stocks since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis five years ago.

The S&P Composite 1500 Index, among the widest measures of the U.S. market, has had almost $10 trillion US wiped out since mid-February, a significant blow to millions of Americans’ retirement nest eggs.

WATCH | Trump defiant as Dow plunges, global recession fears rise:

Trump defiant as Dow plunges 2,200 points, global recession fears rise

U.S. President Donald Trump shows no signs of backing down from his tariffs even after the Dow Jones shed 2,200 points — its worst close since 2020 — while global markets also tanked for a second day, raising fears of a prolonged worldwide recession.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett denied that the tariffs were part of a Trump strategy to crash financial markets as a way to pressure the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. He said there would be no “political coercion” of the central bank.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump shared a video that suggested his tariffs aimed to hammer the stock market on purpose in a bid to force lower interest rates.

The social media post fuelled global debate over whether Trump’s tariffs were part of a permanent new tariff regime or simply a negotiating tactic that could lead to the tariffs being eased through concessions by other countries.