White House Claims 'Golden Age Has Begun' As Stocks Continue To Plummet Over Trump Tariffs

The White House celebrated on Friday that the most recent jobs report beat estimates, claiming that a "Golden Age has begun." However, headlines are dominated by stocks plummeting further as President Donald Trump doubles down on his tariff policy and China gears to impose reciprocal levies.

The S&P is plunging by more than 4% after dropping 4.8% on Thursday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 plunges by almost 5.5% after a 6% drop the day before. All indexes resumed their downward trend after Trump said his economic policies "will never change," claiming that "this is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before."

Trump also slammed China after Beijing imposed reciprocal tariffs, saying the country "played it wrong." "They panicked, the one thing they cannot afford to do," the president said in his social media platform, Truth Social.

The president has been active on social media, also sharing a TikTok video from a user claiming he was "purposely crashing the market" to get the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

However, while Trump and some top officials continue to defend the policies, claiming they need time to have a positive effect, other Republicans are expressing concern at their immediate impact.

Former Rep. Charlie Dent told Politico on Friday that "people are talking about a recession" less than three months into Trump's term even though "he ran to lower prices and be a good steward of the economy."

"People are anxious and angry," Dent added. "Raising the price of a car by $2,000 or $10,000, that's a lot of money to most people and they're being awfully cavalier about that."

The outlet noted that Trump currently holds the lowest approval rating since his return to office: 43%, according to the latest installment of a Reuters/Ipsos poll that took place this week. The figure could be hit further as the impact of the tariffs continues to become apparent, with the stock market tanking on Thursday and Friday as a result of the tariffs.

Other members of the GOP are taking concrete steps to address the measures. On Thursday, Sen. Chuck Grassley co-sponsored a bill that would require tariffs to be ratified by Congress within 60 days of their imposition. Should that not happen, they would expire.

The bill comes right after four GOP senators defied Trump and voted along Democratic senators to repeal tariffs levied against Canada. Those who voted with Democrats were Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul. Their decision catalyzed an angry rant from Donald Trump, who took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to criticize them.

Paul, in fact, wrote an op-ed on Fox News calling to "terminate the Trump tariffs before it's too late." "The truth is that tariffs are taxes. They don't punish foreign governments; they punish American families," Paul said.