Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Topics: US News, Donald Trump, Money
Joe Harker
Donald Trump sent out a warning to his followers on social media shortly before his government announced a U-turn on the tariff policy which had been wreaking havoc on the stock market.
Trump last week announced a whole load of tariffs on almost every country in the world, though he yesterday (9 April) rowed back a bit on those for all but one country, China.
The US Treasury Secretary said that most countries would still be on a 10 percent baseline tariff but the 'reciprocal' higher tariffs would be on hold for 90 days.
While Trump has backed off from the higher tariff levels on other countries, he tightened the screws harder on China by cranking its tariffs up to 125 percent as the country retaliated by issuing 84 percent tariffs on US goods flowing across the Pacific.
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The tariffs had triggered an absolute bloodbath in stock markets around the world, but Trump's announcement that he was pausing them for most of the world triggered a recovery which saw stocks regain some of the ground they'd lost after trillions of dollars in value had been wiped out in a matter of days.
Four hours before the White House announced its U-turn, Trump posted 'THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!' on social media which caused some controversy and has led to questions being asked over whether he'd been sending out a signal to his followers.
With the stock market recovering after the reversal on tariff decisions, buying when Trump said you should buy would have been a profitable financial decision.
With stocks crashing, investors could buy at a cheaper price and see their portfolio swiftly gain value due to the recovery following the White House's announcement amid claims from officials that 'this was his strategy all along' to pause tariffs.
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It's prompted calls for an investigation into insider trading, as the Independent reports that Democratic politicians have been asking why the government didn't say anything about this supposed plan to row back from the tariffs at the last minute.
"These were specific questions. We asked you all along, ‘What’s the strategy?’" Nevada representative Steven Horsford said.
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"This is amateur hour and it needs to stop... How are you in charge of negotiating if the president is tweeting about this from wherever the hell he is?
"Did you know that this was happening? Is this market manipulation?"
Trump's trade adviser Jamieson Greer denied it being 'market manipulation', and insisted the tariffs were 'trying to reset the global trade system that has offshored all our factories'.
Time reports that US government ethics law expert at Washington University School of Law Kathleen Clark said Trump's post telling people to buy stock might have been investigated under previous administrations, but it probably wouldn't happen for this one.
She said: "He’s sending the message that he can effectively and with impunity manipulate the market. As in: Watch this space for future stock tips."