By Trevor Hunnicutt
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday foreign governments would have to pay “a lot of money” to lift sweeping tariffs that he characterized as “medicine,” prompting further carnage in global financial markets.
Asian stocks posted steep losses in early trading on Monday and U.S. stock market futures opened sharply lower as investors registered concerns that Trump’s tariffs could lead to higher prices, weaker demand, lower confidence and potentially a global recession.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated he was not concerned about losses that have already wiped out trillions of dollars in value from share markets around the world.
“I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said as he returned from a weekend of golf in Florida.
Trump said he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia over the weekend, who hope to convince him to lower tariffs as high as 50% due to take effect this week.
“They are coming to the table. They want to talk but there’s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis,” Trump said.
Trump’s tariff announcement last week jolted economies around the world, triggering retaliatory levies from China and sparking fears of a global trade war and recession.
Investors and political leaders have struggled to determine whether Trump’s tariffs are here to stay, or part of a permanent new regime or a negotiating tactic to win concessions from other countries.
On Sunday morning talk shows, Trump’s top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the U.S. in the global trade order.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said more than 50 nations had started negotiations with the U.S. since last Wednesday’s announcement. “He’s created maximum leverage for himself,” Bessent said on NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on CBS News’ ‘Face the Nation’ the tariffs would remain in place “for days and weeks.”
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett sought to tamp down concerns that the tariffs were part of a strategy to pressure the U.S. Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, saying there would be no “political coercion” of the central bank.
JPMorgan economists now estimate the tariffs will result in full-year U.S. gross domestic product declining by 0.3%, down from an earlier estimate of 1.3% growth, and that the unemployment rate will climb to 5.3% from 4.2% now.
