ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
President Trump's tariffs rocked U.S. stock markets for a third consecutive day of trading. The Dow closed down 349 points after a day of wild swings. And today, Trump escalated the trade war, threatening to slap an additional 50% tax on Chinese-made goods even though Wall Street CEOs and other business leaders are starting to speak out about the damage these tariffs are causing. NPR financial correspondent Maria Aspan is here with the latest. Hey, Maria.
MARIA ASPAN, BYLINE: Hey there.
SHAPIRO: Wall Street has historically been pretty reluctant to criticize Trump publicly. What's changed?
ASPAN: Well, money talks. It was another chaotic day in the financial markets with some wild swings in the major U.S. indices and a serious sell-off around the world. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped more than 13%, its worst day since the Asian financial crisis in 1997. The U.S. markets didn't take that sort of damage today, but they've still lost trillions of dollars since Wednesday. And pretty much everyone, even people who voted for President Trump, is putting the blame on his trade war.
Business leaders generally welcomed Trump's election. They were really looking forward to his promises of lower taxes and deregulation. And at first, they didn't seem to realize just how serious Trump was about this scale of tariffs. But now that we have a clearer picture, they're still trying to stay on Trump's good side, but some are carefully getting more vocal.
SHAPIRO: What does getting more vocal - carefully - sound like?
ASPAN: Well, the big headline today was Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Dimon runs the country's largest bank, and he's one of the most powerful and prominent people on Wall Street. And today, he published his annual letter to shareholders warning that the tariffs will raise prices, slow economic growth and hurt the country's global standing. He said his, quote, "most serious concern is how this will affect America's long-term economic alliances."
We also saw some vocal Trump supporters on Wall Street, including billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, begging the president to back away from the tariffs. Ackman wrote on X that the tariffs are causing an economic nuclear war and warned that the president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe.
SHAPIRO: But tariffs have been such a key part of Trump's world view for so long. Is he going to listen to this criticism?
ASPAN: People I spoke today (ph) are not optimistic. One of them was Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia Business School.
BRETT HOUSE: I think we're unlikely to see a change in direction from the White House until we see a great deal more voices come forward and we see further pain in financial markets.
ASPAN: Trump seemed to confirm that analysis this afternoon. He threatened to slap even more tariffs on Chinese imports. And then, in response to a reporter's question about whether he was looking at a pause on his tariffs to allow for talks, he said he was not looking at a pause. Trump said countries are going to get, quote, "fair deals," and that in certain cases, they will pay substantial tariffs.
SHAPIRO: And what kind of long-term damage could that do, big picture?
ASPAN: All kinds of damage. I mean, economists across the political aisle have long warned that Trump's tariffs will raise prices for all consumers. Now we're seeing mounting warnings that they'll also tip the United States and the world into a recession. Goldman Sachs just raised its outlook for a recession this year to almost 50/50, and it said that if Trump doesn't back down on tariffs, it fully expects a recession. Even if that doesn't happen, the chaos in the financial markets is causing real damage to ordinary Americans who have their retirement accounts and other savings invested there. So as long as this trade war keeps getting worse, we're all likely to continue feeling Wall Street's pain.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Maria Aspan, thank you.
ASPAN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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