Trump Defends Sweeping Tariffs

US President Donald Trump has defended sweeping tariffs on imports that sent shockwaves through global stock markets, saying “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something”.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late on Sunday, he said jobs and investment would return to the US to make it “wealthy like never before”.

Trump’s top officials stressed that the tariffs – announced last week – would be implemented as planned, playing down recession fears.

Just hours after Trump’s comments, stock markets plunged in Asia early on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping by 7.8%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng losing more than 12%.

On Friday, all three major stock indexes in the US fell more than 5%, while the S&P 500 dropped almost 6% in the worst week for the US stock market since 2020.

Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange – which trades on Sundays – ended nearly 7% lower, its biggest daily loss since the pandemic, state-owned media said.

US banking giant JP Morgan has predicted a 60% chance of a US and global recession following Trump’s tariffs announcement.

Speaking aboard the presidential plane on a flight back to Washington DC, Trump said European and Asian countries were “dying to make a deal”.

He also pushed back against a reporter’s inquiry about American consumers’ “pain threshold” as fears of steep price increases and a market recession grow.

“I think your question is so stupid,” he told the reporter. “I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

In a series of TV interviews earlier on Sunday, Trump’s top officials also played down recent stock market falls.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC’s Meet the Press programme that there was “no reason” to expect a recession as a result. “This is an adjustment process,” he added.

BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma