US politicians have labelled Donald Trump’s tariff u-turn as “grifting at its finest” which was “designed to make billionaires richer.”
After days of market chaos, Trump announced a 90-day pause for countries hit by higher US tariffs on Wednesday.
At the same time though, he increased tariffs on goods from China to 125%.
This didn’t stop stock prices soaring following the news though, with markets in Asia and Europe making gains on Thursday morning.
However, some have raised questions about the saga, suggesting the whole thing was a ‘grift’ by the Trump administration.
In a post on X, Rep. Steven Horsford decided to “break down what happened in America.”
He pointed out how in the morning, Trump had told his followers to buy stocks, posting: “This is a great time to buy!!!”
Horsford continued: “The markets opened in chaos. He doubled down on tariffs, and the country’s trade rep was set to testify before the Ways and Means Committee today.”
The Nevada congressman claimed that just minuted before he was set to speak, a staffer “informed the trade representative that Trump had changed his mind—seemingly without telling anyone, not even the highest-ranking trade official.”
“Almost immediately after the announcement, the market soared,” Horsford wrote.
The Democrat said this was “grifting at its finest”, and “reckless governing and it’s designed to make billionaires richer while the rest of us pay the price.”
He added: “So the trade representative hasn’t spoken to the POTUS about a global reordering of trade, but yet he announced it on a tweet? WTF! Who is in charge?”
Horsford also shared a video of him asking Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, about Trump’s U-turn and how much he knew about it.
Horsford is not the only one to question if Trump’s Wednesday morning post points to insider trading.
US Senator Chris Murphy posted a video on X claiming the 09:30am post “makes it clear he was eager for his people to make money off the private info only he knew.”
Fellow senator Elizabeth Warren has also called for an investigation into “whether President Trump manipulated the market to benefit his Wall Street donors.”
Whilst the higher rates of tariff have been paused – with the exception of China – the universal 10% tariff for all countries remains in place.
At the time of writing,
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