CNN political commentator Scott Jennings suggested President Donald Trump is “betting his presidency” on his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs but would not say if Trump was making a good bet.
“He firmly believes it, and he firmly believes in making this bet,” Jennings said on Thursday. “I mean, he’s betting his presidency on this issue, which is probably the most closely and longest-held political and economic belief that he’s ever had. He’s been talking about doing it for 40 years.”
John Berman asked Jennings if he thought that Trump made a winning bet.
“We’ll find out,” Jennings said. “If it’s right, it’ll be the ballsiest thing that ever happened. And if it is wrong, the consequences will fall on one shoulder.”
On Wednesday, Trump shared his plan to implement reciprocal tariffs. The following day, the Dow Jones opened 1,178 points down, or 2.7%.
“There’s obviously a great many stocks in the red, but I do see five or six in the green, so there are some stocks that are moving up. S&P 500, sharply lower there, down 3.3%, 189 points,” Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney reported. “And the NASDAQ, that’s still down about four percentage points, yeah, 4.5%. Check out Big Tech. I’m pretty sure they’re all down.”
Trump took to social media to prop up his tariff policy.
“THE OPERATION IS OVER! THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING,” Trump posted on Thursday morning on Truth Social. “THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Later in the afternoon on Thursday, Trump touted from the North Lawn that his plan was going well.
TRUMP TURNS TO FORMER CRITICS TO HELP BUILD OUT SECOND ADMINISTRATION
China announced Friday morning that it was imposing retaliatory tariffs at 34% on U.S. imports, hurting stock futures.
“I think it’s going very well,” Trump told reporters. “It was an operation, like when a patient gets operated on. The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to go boom. The country is going boom. And the rest of the world wants to see, is there any way they can make a deal?”