WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Two days after announcing widespread tariffs to hoist and swell the economy, President Donald Trump argued that trade policy would not change as he remains wrapped in bubbles of Florida’s wealth and power.
He woke up Friday morning at Mar-A-Lago, a private club in Palm Beach, and after writing on social media, “This is the best time to get rich,” he headed to a nearby golf course a few miles away.
Several supporters stood on the sidewalk as cards, dressed in his signature red “American great” hat and a white polo shirt, gliding down a palm-lined street. They waved at him, he turned around, part of the ritual that performs every weekend of him being in town.
The Republican president will be attending a candle dinner for the alliance’s political organisation, Maga Inc., on Friday evening, but the Republican president was not expected to appear publicly. He spent Thursday in Miami on another of his golf courses, where he took part in a Saudi-funded tournament. He landed in the Marines and was greeted by a golf cart driven by his son Eric.
While Trump often proves imperfection to scandals and gaffes that hurt other politicians, his decision to spend the weekend on golden estates can test Americans’ patience when retirement savings are evaporating along with the stock market. Tariffs are expected to increase prices by thousands of dollars a year and slow economic growth, with fears about a potential recession.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that tariffs are “significantly larger than expected” and are likely to cause more inflation, at least in the short term, but are “very likely” in the long term.
But Trump described his policy as a painful yet necessary step to encourage businesses to move operations to the US, and he vowed to protect the morning with his social media platform, the true social platform, and to stick with his policy.
Experts have criticised Trump’s tariffs, but he has found some support for Tiktok. He shared a video saying “Trump is crashing the stock market” and “he’s doing it intentionally,” and “it’s a secret game he’s playing and can make you rich.”
According to the video, the goal is to drive the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. This is something Trump explicitly called out late in the morning.
“This is the perfect time,” he wrote for Powell to cut interest rates. “Cut your interest rates, Jerome, and stop doing politics!”
Foreign leaders scrambled in response to Trump’s announcement this week, and the president tried to assault and cut trade.
He spoke to Vietnamese leaders and Lam, saying he insisted that he would eliminate tariffs on US goods if Vietnam could do business with the US.
He also criticized China for announcing its own tariffs on US imports.
“China got it wrong, they panic – one thing they can’t afford to do!” he wrote.
Republicans have suggested that Trump’s policies will mark the beginning of a parley with foreign countries.
“The president is a deal maker, if nothing else, and he intends to continue dealing with each and every country and country,” said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso. He added that Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent told Senate Republicans this week that tariffs will be “a high-level mark with the ultimate goal of reducing them” unless other countries retaliate.
New York Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called Trump’s tariffs “a brutal pincer move with American families trapped in the middle.”
Meanwhile, Trump also celebrated a new report showing that the US had added 228,000 jobs in March, beating expectations. The numbers were snapshots of the economy before the tariffs were announced, but Trump claimed to prove that he already showed his movement was working.
“Good luck,” he wrote. “We can’t lose!!”
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Major reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report from Washington.
