Almost certainly not. If you wanted to do this a better move would have been to target China with 100% tariffs then load up on Chinese stocks before lifting them.

You wouldn't need to start a trade war with the entire world, including allies, to do what you're suggesting. Just targeting a few companies or a single economy would work just as well without destroying your own country's economy and your political legacy.

> Almost certainly not.

Trump created a cryptocurrency, didn't he? I don't see why he wouldn't think about doing that.

> a better move would have been to target China with 100% tariffs then ...

Not saying it's a good move, even though if you are already rich and manage to make more billions by screwing the rest of the world, I think it's individually a good move. Which is why it should be highly illegal.

I could imagine someone doing that if they were rich, narcissistic and incompetent: they don't care about the recession because they are rich, they don't know the "better move" because they are incompetent, and they believe they are right because they are narcissistic. :-)

Cross my mind when government tweets were moving entire indices. That is a Midas touch.

I think that's exactly what it is. It should be illegal. Congress is asleep at the wheel (or whatever the little knob they end up holding).

Far from being asleep, Congress is actively participating, just not the way you hoped for:

https://money.com/congress-stock-market-traders-2025/

They are sure holding the knobs... of a slot machine that is Congress.

I am from the future, and the answer is yes, this happened.

I always recommend Ray Dalio's video on how economics: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xguam0TKMw8

The tariffs and heck, electing a man like Trump, is a response to the existing situation.

1. Debt is very high and increasing at an unsustainable rate. Rather than default on debts, empires always print more money.

2. Competitiveness has gone down. In times of comfort, work ethic goes down too and a culture emerges where the working class is looked down on.

3. Economic disparity results in political polarity between the left and the right. This leads to revolutions. American revolutions tend to be fairly peaceful, but many are violent.

4. Technological advances allows for a shift in the order. New contenders have the conditions to make good use of them, which allows them to outpace the global leader.

5. Wars increase in a desperate move to hold on to power without having an economic lead. This leads to overextension and further collapse.

The tariffs are primarily a response to debt and competitiveness. Trump's election and everyone's distrust for him stems from political polarity. Many of his recent surprising actions are in preparation for a war.

The tariffs are an attempted cure to an existing problem. But like many cures, it buys time until the inevitable happens. It's not making the US more competitive. It might not cure the economic disparity.

So what you see is three things coming together: 1) admission that the US debt may not be manageable, 2) worrying long term outlook, 3) Trump's lack of diplomacy making people assume the worst

Since this is just a speculation: China's government could throw a wrench in that.

Let's say they see Taiwan coming out of a negotiation with Trump implementing zero tariffs.

I wouldn't put it past them to do a naval blockade on Taiwan to "prevent the US from stealing their tax income" or some other excuse.

Given all the tumult, it doesn’t seem like this can last. Trump won’t be able to get any other message out there as long as this is going on.

I’m not a betting man, nor do I think the markets are sensible, but I imagine a big pullback before Wednesday.

I mean yeah, of course they could. That's probably exactly what's happening. I'm not aware of any laws against it unfortunately, previously we relied on Presidents to do what is best for the nation rather than their friends, but we live in unprecedented times.

We relied on the separation of powers, hoping it would be nearly impossible for the legislative or executive branches to collude with the judiciary, given the legislative branch's size and diversity. Jefferson feared that political parties could circumvent this separation. It seems his concerns were not unfounded.