US President Donald Trump, on Sunday (Apr 6), said that the massive dips in American as well as global markets showcased that the "medicine" of his trade tariff strategy was working.
"Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a weekend of golfing in Florida, adding that trade partners are "coming to the table" and "want to talk."
Further condemning the previous Joe Biden-led administration, Trump reiterated that the trading partners have over the years treated US "badly".
"We have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen," he said, according to news agency Reuters.
'What's going to happen to the markets, I can’t tell'
Speaking about the American as well as global market turmoil, the US president said, “What’s going to happen to the markets, I can’t tell you. But our country is much stronger."
He told reporters that over the weekend, he engaged in talks with the world leaders over the tariffs and that "they are dying to make a deal."
Trump's announcement of reciprocal tariffs on several countries, including a 34% tariff on China, triggered a significant market downturn, wiping out nearly $6 trillion in value from American stocks.
Also read:Trump tariffs: Will markets continue to fall on Monday? Wall Street braces for further impact
Trump's team rejects investors’ market fears
Meanwhile, the US president's top economic officials, rejected the fears faced by investors of inflation and recession, according to the Bloomberg reports.
“The tariffs are coming,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Lutnick told CBS, adding that Trump “announced it and he wasn’t kidding.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC that over 50 countries had called the Trump administration, but the talks would take time.
“They’ve been bad actors for a long time. And it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks,” Bessent said. “…We are going to have to see the path forward. Because, you know, after 20, 30, 40, 50 years of bad behaviour, you can’t just wipe the slate clean.”
(With inputs from agencies)