"Be cool": Trump calls for calm after tariffs, assures markets it’s "a good time to buy"

President Donald Trump urged Americans to stay calm and keep investing Wednesday after his sweeping reciprocal tariffs went into effect, an indication that the White House is closely monitoring the market's reaction to the levies.
"This is an excellent time to buy," Trump declared Wednesday in a post on his social media. The president also encouraged his followers with a"be cool" and added his prediction that "everything is going to be fine." "America will be bigger and better than ever," he stated.
Following the president's release, stocks began to rally, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index in positive territory, and the Nasdaq 100 adding to gains.
Trump also highlighted JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Jamie Dimon's appearance on Fox Business Wednesday morning, noting that the bank chief had praised the idea of setting tariffs and trade. Trump did not comment on Dimon's prediction, in the same interview, that a recession was "a likely outcome" of Trump's tariff measures.

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Trump and other administration officials have largely downplayed the market machinations behind the decision to raise tariffs to their highest level in a century, arguing that the move would revitalize domestic manufacturing and that the president's upcoming tax-cut bill would boost the economy.
"Over the last four decades, basically since I started my career on Wall Street, Wall Street has gotten richer than ever, and it can continue to grow and prosper, but for the next four years," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the American Bankers Association's Washington Summit on Wednesday.
"Trump's agenda is focused on ordinary people. It's the turn of ordinary people. It's the common people's turn to hire workers. It's the common people's turn to drive investment, and it's the common people's turn to restore the American dream," he said.

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Still, the S&P 500 is down more than 14% and the Nasdaq is down more than 19% since the beginning of the year, underscoring the challenge the administration faces in its reform of the international trading system.
Negotiations with partners such as Japan, South Korea, Europe and India are expected to begin in the coming days, with Trump hinting at the possibility of reducing or eliminating tariffs in exchange for trade and regulatory concessions from his trading partners.
However, other countries, including China, prominently, have responded to Trump's tariffs with equivalent levies on US exports.

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Peter Tchir, chief macroeconomic strategist at Academy Securities, said Trump's comments could be interpreted as a sign of confidence, as they could show that he is attentive to the markets. However, Tchir also urged caution.
"I need to see some specifics; some members of the administration have been saying we're not headed for a recession, but they're not doing anything about it," Tchir stated.