Day 844: Trump’s trade war needlessly tanks stock market

Donald Trump foolishly wanted yet another trade war.

He got it.

On Monday, China implemented reciprocal tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods. The markets in both countries quickly responded.

When the dust settled $1 trillion in value was gone.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones lost 617 points (2.4%), the NASDAQ lost 270 points (3.4%) and the S&P 500 lost 69 points (2.4%). Tech companies and those with substantial work in China took a drubbing, including some of the largest employers in the U.S.

Volatility has gotten worse over the past few weeks. That has largely followed Trump’s increasingly pointed — and likely desperate — rhetoric as he failed to force a deal with China. The market drop came a day after one of Trump’s top economic advisers acknowledged that Americans would be bearing the brunt of the trade war as he undercut Trump’s position on tariffs.

The once pro-free trade GOP has tried to rally behind Trump’s decision to engage in trade wars. Perhaps the most absurdly transparent and disingenuous argument came from Tom Cotton (R-AR).

Maybe that’s the GOP’s new straw man argument for everything unpalatable: the soldiers have it worse.

844 days in, 618 to go

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