President Donald Trump offered advice to those who are worried about his latest tariffs on Saturday, writing in a social media post that Americans needed to “hang tough.”
Trump’s remarks came as some of the tariffs he announced last week went into effect on Saturday, something he described in his post as an “economic revolution.”
“We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before,” he said. “It won’t be easy but the end result will be historic. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
The remarks from Trump come as the reception to his tariff plans have not been met with a warm reception. Earlier this week, Trump put in place a 10% universal tariff on all U.S. imports and reciprocal tariffs on almost 90 countries who he deemed had been unfairly charging tariffs on U.S. exports.
Trump maintains that his plan will help bring manufacturing back to the U.S. while creating jobs and generating federal revenue.
Some tariffs have yet to go into effect, as they are slated for Wednesday. These include tariffs of 50% for Lesotho, 49% for Cambodia, and 47% for Madagascar.
In response to the new taxes, the stock market has seen record drops, with the S&P 500 falling 6% on Friday alone, after falling a similar amount on Thursday, the day after Trump announced the plan. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also down 5.5%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 5.8%.
That response marked the worst week for financial markets since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While China has reacted negatively to Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, vowing to respond with new taxes on U.S. exports, Trump claimed on Truth Social that China had been treating the U.S. unfairly on trade for years.
“They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly,” Trump said on Truth Social. “We have been the dumb and helpless ‘whipping post,’ but not any longer.”