Donald Trump attempted to change his fortunes Sunday night and manifest a strong economy for the week ahead after a shocking fall from grace on Wall Street just days ago.
The president spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday night as stock futures rose, a positive sign for the president after a week of what The Wall Street Journal dubbed “one of the most eventful months in years” for the stock market.
The positive news came after Trump appeared to exempt electronics, including smartphones, from his 125-percent tariffs on China.
The Nikkei Stock Average in Japan surged nearly 2% Monday morning, according to The Journal, seemingly as a result. Semiconductor and electronics stocks were behind much of the gains.
The market’s opening was muted, however, after Trump crashed his own party earlier Sunday and sent mixed messages to the market in a Truth Social post. He claimed that there was “no tariff exception,” despite his U.S. Customs and Border Protection publishing guidelines titled: “Reciprocal Tariff Exclusion for Specified Products.”
“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!” he wrote.
MOMENTS AGO: President Trump talks to reporters aboard Air Force One https://t.co/QCezV0HNO7
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 14, 2025
Asked about the ambiguity surrounding what comes next, Trump sent a message to the markets aboard Air Force One.
“There shouldn’t be ambiguity, we have a tremendous country,” Trump said. “We have a country that’s much richer today than it was a few months ago.”
“We have a financial system thats very respected and we’re going to do great. We were taken advantage of and ripped off by every country all over the world-almost, just about–they laughed at us, we were run by foolish people and they took advantage of our country and we’re just not going to let that happen anymore.”
Trump said an announcement on iPhones and other electronics was coming “soon” and hinted at “flexibility” on tariffs for such products, but did not go into detail.
“That’s going to be announced very soon, and we’ll be discussing it, but we’ll also talk to companies. You know, you have to show a certain flexibility. Nobody should be so rigid. We’re doing really well… it’s going to be separately announced.”
Trump added that semiconductor tariffs will be in place “in the very near future.”
“Like we did with steel, like we did with automobiles, like we did with aluminum–which are now fully on–we’ll be doing that with semiconductors, with chips and numerous other things. And that’ll take place in the very near future.”
“We want to uncomplicate it from a lot of other countries, we want to make our chips and semiconductors and other things in our country,” he said, confirming he would make an announcement “over the next week.”
He then added tariffs on pharmaceutical companies outside the U.S. will happen “very fast.”
“We’re going to have our drugs made in the United States, so that in case of war, in case of whatever, we’re not relying on China and various other countries, which is not a good idea,” Trump said.
The post Markets Show Promising Signs Despite Trump’s Baffling Comments appeared first on The Daily Beast.
