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Trump seeks to celebrate tariffs, reassure on economy

2 25
08.08.2025

President Trump sought to celebrate his new tariff regime and reassure the public about his economic stewardship on Thursday as a trade agenda upending the GOP and the global economic order came into place.

Trump said the tariffs would raise billions for the U.S. Treasury, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that foreign producers and big retailers would absorb the costs of the tariffs.

“Tariffs are flowing into the USA at levels not thought even possible,” Trump said Thursday morning.

Stock markets were less impressed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a loss of 0.5 percent, falling 224 points, as Trump’s tariffs went into place, while the S&P 500 index fell by roughly 0.1 percent.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed up 0.4 percent after being up as much as 1 percent in the morning.

Trump closed the day with an impromptu economic announcement from the White House with the conservative economist Stephen Moore that was aimed at pushing back at the Bureau of Labor Statistics report last week that found the economy gained about 250,000 fewer jobs than previously thought over the last several months.

Moore and Trump showed charts that said job gains were much stronger under Trump than President Biden, while Trump again suggested the previous week’s numbers had been rigged against them. Trump’s firing of the BLS commissioner who produced the report had come under criticism form liberals and conservatives, who warned it would be difficult to tilt the data.

The aggressive defense of the firing, and the firing itself, suggests some worry on Trump’s part that the economy may not be as strong as it seems. Readings of the data last week suggested employers worried about the uncertainties of the tariffs might be holding off on their hiring.

“The economy is slowing and growing below its short-run potential,” wrote Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, in an analysis this week.

“As large businesses can weather tariffs better, they outperform small ones, reinforcing recent labor market weakness. Employment among small businesses, the backbone of........

© The Hill