Trump says he doesn’t want stocks to go down, ‘but sometimes you have to take medicine’ | He cited the trade deficit with China as his rationale for pressing on with his tariffs plan despite the recent pain in the markets

> “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday night when asked about the markets.

> He cited the trade deficit with China as his rationale for pressing on with his tariffs plan despite the recent pain in the markets.

> “We have to solve our trade deficit with China,” he said. **“We have a trillion-dollar trade deficit with China, hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose with China. And unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal.”**

> “I’m willing to deal with China,” he added, “but they have to solve their surplus.”

> He added that he spoke with European and Asian leaders over the weekend on the tariffs rolled out by his administration, which are expected to take effect in the coming week.

> Trump’s comments echo those made by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who on Sunday said the administration will remain steadfast in its plans for reciprocal tariffs on major U.S. trading partners, even in the face of the global stock market sell-off. White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett said the stock market drop is not part of an intentional strategy.

> The comments by Trump and team come after the president himself shared a link to a video on his Truth Social account, which claimed the president was causing the markets to plummet on purpose as part of his broader economic plans.

If this is the medicine I am antivax

On bright side I get to call those people who saying this is just negotiating tactics to go fuck themselves

Time to see if Machiavelli was right that you should not fuck with people’s possessions