Critics raged Friday after President Donald Trump announced higher tariffs on China as the stock market sank, calling the move "really, really consequential."
Trump unleashed multiple rants on Truth Social Friday, saying he was planning repercussions after China added new retaliatory port fees for U.S. ships and added a 100% tariff on top of already existing tariffs — the latest move in the ongoing trade war. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed nearly 900 points lower than the day's trading, the lowest it's been since April.
Social media users responded to the news.
"Tariff otaku woke up and posted one China tariff threat and we get the worst stock market result in 6 months lol," writer Joey Politano wrote on X.
"Know there's a lot going on, but 48-hour implosion of the months-long US-China trade detente - now with a threat to impose tariffs at a level surpassing the Spring rate that represented a de facto trade embargo + sweeping export controls - is really, really consequential," CNN's Phil Mattingly wrote on X.
"No meeting + 100% tariffs. Definitely part of a plan that was 'devised by them years ago'—that our politicians allowed to happen. Hard to believe POTUS didn’t see this coming when he’s been talking about this for decades—before it became 'fashionable.' He did. It’s calculated," writer Erik Durneika posted on X.
"Just a reminder that the Constitution gives Congress the power to set tariffs. It could end this madness any day they chose to discover their power," University of Michigan professor Justin Wolfers wrote on X.