Trump says "No Deal Before Solving Trade Deficit" Despite US Stock Market Crash from Reciprocal Tariffs

"If China Had Lowered Tariffs, the TikTok Deal Would Have Been Approved"
"Tariffs Are the Only Cure... Someday People Will Realize"

U.S. President Donald Trump said on the 6th (local time) regarding the stock market plunge after reciprocal tariffs, "Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something."

President Trump met with reporters on the plane moving from Florida to Washington DC and said, "The U.S. cannot continue to suffer a $1.9 trillion loss in trade. It is not sustainable." When asked if he intentionally caused the stock market crash, he replied, "No. Absolutely not," adding, "I want to fix the trade deficit with China, the European Union, and other countries." When asked where his threshold is for accepting a market crash, he said, "That question is stupid," and answered, "I don't want anything to go down."

Donald Trump, President of the United States. Photo by Asia Economy

Regarding tariff negotiations with China, he said, "Our trade deficit with China is $1 trillion, and we need to fix it," adding, "We will not negotiate until this issue is resolved." He continued, "I want to negotiate, but they (China) need to fix their surplus with the U.S.," and stated, "China is taking a big hit right now because everyone knows we are right."

President Trump also addressed media reports that a deal was arranged for U.S. companies to acquire stakes in the U.S. business of Chinese video platform TikTok, but China opposed it at the last minute due to reciprocal tariffs, saying, "That is mostly accurate." He added, "We were very close to a deal, but China changed their stance because of tariffs," and said, "If I had reduced the tariffs a bit, they would have approved the deal. This shows the power of tariffs."

When asked if he agrees with his close aide Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who mentioned that the U.S. and Europe should move toward zero tariffs, he said, "Europe has made a lot of money from us," and claimed, "They treated us very badly." He then raised the trade deficit issue, saying, "We cannot keep doing that while spending a lot of money on NATO to protect Europe. We are protecting them militarily while losing out in trade."

President Trump said, "I have talked to many people in Europe, Asia, and around the world," and added, "They really want to negotiate." He continued, "I cannot tell you what will happen in the market," but claimed, "However, the U.S. has become stronger. I can say the U.S. will be the most economically powerful country."

Regarding concerns about tariff-driven inflation, he argued that there was no inflation during his first term despite tariffs on China, saying, "Inflation will not be a big problem." On the same day, he posted on his social media (SNS), saying, "We have trade deficits with China, the European Union (EU), and many countries," and added, "The only way to fix this problem is tariffs." He claimed tariffs would "bring billions of dollars to the U.S." and added, "Someday people will realize that tariffs for America are very beautiful."