Donald Trump warns 'don't be weak and stupid' as tariffs send stock markets into freefall

Donald Trump has ordered the world not to be "weak" and "stupid" despite economies across the globe being in amid growing fears of a .

The US president took to Truth Social to insist the tariffs should have been done "decades" ago. His post came shortly before the markets opened in Wall Street today - when it was revealed US stocks had plummeted once again. Trump's post read: "The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!"

The S&P 500 index, which tracks the country’s leading listed companies, was tumbling by about 200 points, or 4%, shortly after opening today. The Dow Jones index was down about 3.7%, and Nasdaq fell around 4.4%. Analysts had been expecting the indexes to suffer another day of steep losses amid the global market turmoil sparked by Trump’s tariffs, as the sell-off deepened in European and UK markets.

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Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened. European shares followed Asian markets in lowering, led by Germany’s DAX index, which briefly fell more than 10% at the open on the Frankfurt exchange, but recovered some ground to move down 4.8% in midday trading. In Paris, the CAC 40 shed 5.1%, while Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 4.9%.

Oil prices sank again, briefly dipping below $60 a barrel for the first time since 2021, with more investors anticipating a trade war will chill global economic growth.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman was a supporter of Trump’s bid for the White House but has now demanded tariffs are scrapped in order to prevent an “economic nuclear winter”.

“We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down,” he said. “By placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital.

“The president has an opportunity to call a 90-day time out, negotiate and resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals, and induce trillions of dollars of new investment in our country.”

Mr Ackman, who runs one of the world's largest investment groups in New York hedge fund Pershing Square, admitted if the US launched an “economic nuclear war on every country in the world” then business investment will “grind to a halt”.