US President Donald Trump insisted he had not deliberately triggered the intense market sell-offs but reaffirmed his goal of eliminating the US trade deficit. Global equity markets have tumbled since Trump unveiled higher-than-expected reciprocal tariffs last week, wiping out trillions on Wall Street. On Friday, China responded with retaliatory tariffs, imposing 34% import levies on all US goods, marking a major escalation in the global trade war.
“I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump said aboard Air Force One at the weekend. “We have to solve our trade deficit with China,” he continued. “We have a trillion-dollar trade deficit with China—hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose. Unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal.”
