When asked about the impact of his tariffs, President Donald Trump blamed “globalists” for the recent stock market sell-off. Major stock indexes have dropped sharply this week as investors struggle to understand Trump’s trade policies. The remarks came as Trump issued temporary tariff exemptions for many goods from Canada and Mexico.
When asked if his tariffs were scaring the markets, Trump pinned the blame elsewhere. “Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won’t be doing as well,” Trump replied. “because we’re taking back things that were taken from us many years ago.”
Trump did not elaborate on what those things were.
“We’ve been treated unfairly as a country,” he continued. “We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries, and a lot of these are globalist in nature.”
It was not clear what was globalist in nature, but the Trump administration is considering overhauling its interaction with NATO allies.
Later, during the same press event, Trump blamed globalists again for the market downturn.
“I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.” Over an hour, Trump used “globalist” to describe people, companies, and countries, making it difficult to pinpoint precisely what he was talking about.
Trump blames globalists for downturn
During his first term, Trump denounced a set of ideas he called “globalism” and labeled some of his political opponents globalists as he pushed his nationalist and isolationist worldview. The word has drawn condemnation from critics who say it is linked to antisemitic tropes about Jewish people. According to the American Jewish Committee, the term globalist is used today as “a coded word for Jews who are seen as international elites conspiring to weaken or dismantle ‘Western’ society using their international connections and control over big corporations.”
It was unusual for Trump to use the term globalist as a catchall for what he claimed was driving the stock market’s day-to-day movements.
The White House did not immediately reply when asked for additional context about Trump’s term invocation. Trump denied that the pauses in tariffs came in response to the market rout. “Nothing to do with the market,” Trump said, adding, “I’m not even looking at the market.”
Even as Trump seemed to reject the idea that his tariffs spurred a sell-off, he once again acknowledged that those duties could at least briefly affect the market.
“There’ll always be a little short-term interruption,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be big, but the countries and companies ripping us aren’t particularly happy with what I’m doing.” “Again, there’ll be disruption,” Trump added. The White House did not provide additional comments or clarify the President’s statements further.
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