Donald Trump can’t handle reporters’ questions about his economic failure

It seems that Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed master of The Art of the Deal, is not so much a dealmaker as he is a demolition expert.

He’s blowing up the global economy, and when the fallout lands squarely on his lap, what does he do? (Plays golf, obviously.) Then he lashes out at reporters for having the audacity to ask about his catastrophic economic policies. Clearly, the problem isn’t the $2 trillion wiped off the markets — it’s that journalists dared to hold him accountable.

When Bloomberg journalist Annmarie Hordern asked a fair, straightforward question about the economic pain caused by his tariffs—“Is there any pain in the market you’re unwilling to tolerate?”—Trump  labeled it “stupid.” When Hordern later tried to return to the tariff discussion, Trump deployed his sophisticated debate technique of asking “Who are you with?” before dismissing her with “She asks too many questions.”

Between these interactions, Trump claimed European and Asian leaders were “dying to make a deal.” He also boasted about handling China, noting he wouldn’t make concessions on TikTok deals unless the trade deficit was resolved. Trump claims the U.S. needs to take to fix its trade woes. In theory, tariffs can be a tool to protect domestic industries and force trading partners to negotiate better deals. In practice, when wielded recklessly, they’re like setting your own house on fire.

Since the announcement of his latest round of “Liberation Day” tariffs, the global markets have been in freefall. Over $2 trillion has evaporated from the U.S. stock market. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 plunged by a staggering 7.8%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng nosedived more than 12%. The U.S. isn’t faring much better: all three major indexes dropped over 5%, with the S&P 500 experiencing its worst week since the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Even Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, trading on Sunday, saw its biggest single-day loss since COVID-19 first rocked the world. According to JP Morgan, there’s a 60% chance we’re heading straight into a U.S. and global recession.

Who cares about the numbers, right? Trump certainly doesn’t. He’s too busy boasting about how other countries are “dying to make a deal” while refusing to acknowledge the economic carnage his policies are causing. If Trump had bothered to crack open a history book, he might have learned a thing or two about the dangers of protectionism.

Take the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, for example. Enacted during the Great Depression, it raised tariffs on over 20,000 goods, prompting retaliatory measures from trading partners and exacerbating the economic downturn. The world today is far more interconnected than it was in 1930. Supply chains span continents, and a disruption in one part of the world can ripple across the globe. When Adam Kinzinger called Trump “the destroyer of wealth,” he was giving the most accurate job description Trump’s had since “reality TV host.”