President Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter on Sunday evening when asked about the economic damage caused by his tariffs, which have been wrecking the stock market.
Trump had just returned to Washington, D.C., after two days of golfing at his Florida resort. U.S. stock futures had dropped sharply, signaling more market turmoil. A reporter asked if Trump was intentionally trying to crash the market, a question that followed a video Trump posted on Truth Social in which he seemed to suggest that was his plan.
“That’s not so,” Trump responded sharply.
Trump went on to defend his tariffs as necessary for the nation’s future, despite the market chaos they were causing. He claimed the tariffs were already successful and would bring in trillions of dollars for the U.S. “Those tariffs next year will make us $1 trillion, in addition to the $1 trillion thousands of companies are going to relocate back into the United States,” he said. He pointed to businesses returning to places like North Carolina and Michigan as evidence of his policy’s success.
The president also argued that the trade imbalance with China was unsustainable, saying, “So it’s unsustainable for us to allow China to have surpluses of $1 trillion.” He insisted that the tariffs he had put in place were already bringing in over $1 trillion and would make the U.S. stronger in the long run. “Our country has gotten a lot stronger, and eventually it will be a country like no other. It will be the most dominant country economically in the world,” he added.
Tensions flared when a reporter asked whether there was a point at which Trump would stop tolerating the pain caused by the tariffs. “Mr. President, is there pain in the market at some point you’re unwilling to tolerate?” she asked.
Trump was quick to fire back. “I think your question is so stupid,” he said. He defended his policies by arguing that sometimes tough actions are necessary to fix deep-rooted problems. “We have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen. They took our businesses, they took our money, they took our jobs,” he said, blaming past leaders for allowing companies to move to places like Mexico, Canada, and China.
He concluded, “We’re not going to do it now. We have hundreds of billions of dollars that’s pouring into our country on a monthly basis. It’s already started because I put tariffs on and eventually it’s going to straighten out and our country will be solid and strong again.”
Watch the exchange blow:
