Announced on Donald Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day,” his wide-sweeping tariffs on various countries triggered warnings of recession and massive inflation. But on April 9, the president, who had refused to alter his stance, even when his loyal MAGA voters expressed disappointment, announced a 90-day halt on “reciprocal” tariffs. Why?
Well, just four hours before he reversed his decision, he had asked his followers to buy stocks that soared after the tariffs were paused.
Trump has announced that he is temporarily sidelining his earlier refusal to drop the tariffs as a reward to “more than 75 countries” that did not retaliate and instead approached him to find a “solution,” as he shared in a Truth Social post. During a hearing, Rep. Steven Horsford tore into Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, who allegedly had no idea about “global reordering of trade.”
Tis Liberation Day tariffs are now on a 90-day pause, wherein countries will face only a blanket tariff of 10% until July 2025. Everyone except China, whose tariffs he hiked to 125%. As to why he suddenly changed his firm strategy, the president told reporters at the White House he decided to extend the reprieve as people were getting “yippy.”
“Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid, unlike these champions [he was standing with auto racing champions], because we have a big job to do.
No other president would have done what I did. No other president. And it had to be done.”
But was it all really to rule with an iron fist, to show the world that America is supreme…
Or was it to fill his and the pockets of his followers while the common American consumer paid the price? At 9:37 am, four hours before Trump would change his mind, reversing the very decision that had sent the stock market spiralling and caused economic uncertainty, he vaguely suggested his followers to buy stocks.
Trump tells his followers to buy stock in the morning, minutes after the market opens, then announces he is pausing tariffs 4 hours later.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 9, 2025
Nothing to see here. pic.twitter.com/I6wl3VoGUF
When the market opened, it was in chaos, but the second Trump’s decision came in, it didn’t just recover. It flew. On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 jumped by 9.5% – a major spike that hasn’t happened since 2008 – Dow Jones’ industrial average reached 7.9%, while Nasdaq sat at 12.2% after shares of Apple and Nvidia jumped.
This is grifting at its finest. It’s reckless governing and it’s designed to make billionaires richer while the rest of us pay the price.
— Rep. Steven Horsford (@RepHorsford) April 9, 2025
I got to ask Rep Greer how this happened.
Apparently, when Trump made that morning post, he wasn’t just yammering in the air – he was actively guiding his donors and core supporters, giving them a heads-up even his own trade representative didn’t have.
This is unusual.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) April 8, 2025
Yesterday, politician Marjorie Taylor Greene said that people panicking over tariffs are "losers and failures."
Today, she disclosed over a dozen stock purchases, purchasing hundred of thousands of numerous stocks.
She bought when the market was deeply red.… pic.twitter.com/VN3BkNWyii
Though Trump claimed he had been ruminating over this move for the past few days, finalizing it by telling his supporters to jump into the stock market while it was red doesn’t really paint an innocent picture.
The answer. https://t.co/uPFZ2YAVR0 pic.twitter.com/03jezNr1sE
— Eric Reinhart (@_Eric_Reinhart) April 9, 2025
Apart from benefitting his wealthy donors and staunch supporters, the surge in the market also aided the Shares of Truth Social operator Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which climbed almost 19%. But of course, MAGA will still say that Trump did what he did out of concern for the average American. Right.
Published: Apr 10, 2025 07:47 am