Trump crash stonks again
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President Trump launched new broadsides in his tariff campaign, threatening to impose a 50% rate on the European Union within days, and warning Apple that foreign-made iPhones could face significant levies.
The fresh threats are aimed at core pillars of global commerce: one of the world’s most valuable companies and one of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners. The initial market response reflected revived fears that tariff policy could knock economic growth.
U.S. and European stocks fell. Investors sought shelter in government bonds and haven currencies such as the Swiss franc and Japanese yen, weighing on the dollar. Gold prices rallied.
Senior U.S. and EU trade officials had a prearranged call scheduled at 11:30 a.m. ET. Afterwards, a European official said of the president’s threat: “I don’t think there is anything set in stone… We are negotiating,” while Trump in an Oval Office press briefing said he is “not looking for a deal” with the EU.
G-7 finance and central bank chiefs issued a vague statement Thursday that made no mention of levies, and only one mention of “trade,” after a summit that featured both Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and EU representation.
On Apple, Trump said in a Friday post that he has told Apple CEO Tim Cook “that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.” He later expanded the tariff threat to Samsung and other smartphone producers. Apple shares fell 3%.
These threats are not going to work on Apple because making the phones domestically doesn’t pencil out, but the tariffs and threats of tariffs can certainly make economic conditions worse just as Congress is about to enact some of the worst and most unpopular fiscal policy ever.