While many pundits suggested President Donald Trump’s real-world trade policies wouldn’t be as bad as his campaign rhetoric was last year, the stock market got a rude awakening in April. Executive orders from the White House sent the S&P 500 into free-fall thanks to what many saw as overly invasive tariffs, with the index down an ugly 13% since January 1.
Among other ignominious milestones caused by Trump’s tariffs, we’ve seen the worst short-term performance for stocks under any sitting president in modern history, per CNN, and the worst single-day decline since the realities of COVID-19 hit investors in 2020.
