Donald Trump gushed over a reporter’s question about whether he ‘outsmarted’ the financial markets with his industry-shaking tariffs.
The president beamed broadly when a reporter inquired about his thoughts on Apollo Global Management’s chief economist, Torsten Sløk, who suggested that Trump might have ‘outsmarted everyone’ with his tariffs.
‘Mr. President, a prominent global economist recently reversed his stance and suggests that your tariff strategy might have been a clever move. What are your thoughts?’ the reporter questioned.
Trump replied with a smile: ‘I really like this. This is my favorite question because I’ve faced criticism over this for years. This is the best question I’ve heard.’
‘Because, as you know, we’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, no inflation whatsoever.’
The reporter added in a follow-up question for Trump’s ‘message to critics who think your tariff plan caused a recession?’
‘I think they should go back to business school,’ Trump responded.
‘It’s so obvious. It’s so obvious. I mean, we’re taking in billions and billions of dollars from China and a lot of other countries.’
It came as Wall Street continued its recent rally this week, with the S&P500 and Nasdaq hitting all-time closing highs on Friday.
Donald Trump grinned from ear-to-ear over a reporter’s question about whether he ‘outsmarted’ the financial markets with his industry-shaking tariffs
In Sløk’s report that Trump appeared to enjoy, the economist speculated that Trump would keep tariffs below his most aggressive rates to ease market uncertainty while using them as leverage to get better trade deals.
‘Maybe the strategy is to maintain 30% tariffs on China and 10% tariffs on all other countries and then give all countries 12 months to lower nontariff barriers and open up their economies to trade,’ he wrote.
The report came as Trump’s 90-day pause on ‘reciprocal tariffs’ is set to come to an end early next month.
Sløk said that Trump should consider extending the deadline to a whole year, which he said would give the global markets time to adjust to a ‘new world with permanently higher tariffs.’
‘This would seem like a victory for the world and yet would produce $400 billion of annual revenue for US taxpayers,’ he said.
‘Trade partners will be happy with only 10% tariffs and U.S. tax revenue will go up.
‘Maybe the administration has outsmarted all of us.’
Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Sløk (pictured) said in a new report that Trump may have ‘outsmarted everyone’ with his tariffs
Trump shocked the global markets in April as he introduced a raft of ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, but the gamble may have paid off as markets soared in recent weeks and the US signed a number of trade deals with foreign nations
The soaring stock market numbers came as trade deal hopes fueled investor risk appetite and economic data helped solidify expectations for rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The rise came even after Trump terminated trade negotiations with Canada in response to its digital tax on technology companies.
‘This market’s been pretty resilient,’ said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. ‘Investors are riding momentum and looking for breakouts.’
‘They don’t want to get caught on the wrong side of this thing,’ Carlson added. ‘Many investors already have missed out. And now you have the S&P flirting with an all-time high.’
While tariffs have yet to affect price growth, inflation continues to hover above the Fed’s 2% annual inflation target.
Trump’s glee at the tariff results came as Wall Street continued its recent rally this week, with the S&P500 and Nasdaq hitting all-time closing highs on Friday
A separate report from the University of Michigan confirmed consumer sentiment has improved this month, but remains well below December’s post-election bounce.
Financial markets have priced in a 72% likelihood that the Fed will implement its first rate cut of the year in September, with a smaller, 21% probability of a rate cut coming as soon as July, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
Washington and Beijing reached an agreement to expedite rare-earth shipments to the U.S., a White House official said, well ahead of the July 9 expiration of the 90-day postponement of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs.
Additionally, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration’s trade deals with 18 of the main U.S. trading partners could be done by the September 1 Labor Day holiday.
