Democrats cry foul, allege Donald Trump of market manipulation after tariff U-turn

“Be cool… this is a great time to buy!” US President Donald Trump told his social media followers on Wednesday, barely a week after he slapped tariffs on many nations, including India, sending stock markets across the globe on a tailspin. Mere hours after his note to ‘buy’, Trump paused the tariffs for 90 days, sending the S&P 500 up. In an ideal world, this would amount to market manipulation.

This is exactly what ethics experts, market watchers, and the Democrats across the aisle allege.

The S&P 500 shot up 9.5 per cent following the 90-day pause of tariffs. Usually, this would amount to a great rally for the year. On paper, it was the index’s third-best day since 1940. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 7.9 per cent while the Nasdaq composite soared by 12.2 per cent.

But let us not forget that it was Trump’s trade war that pushed stocks down in the first place, almost pushing the market to the brink of recession in the US.

Trump said that this 3-month relief was on account of over 75 nations coming to the negotiation table, instead of retaliating on reciprocal tariffs. However, it is not convincing enough.

“How is this not market manipulation?” roared California Democratic Representative Mike Levin. The Democrat’s logic was simple, calling the move ‘illegal’—if you blindly trusted Trump, you made a good amount of money on the latest rally. But if you are risk averse, you lost it, especially after Trump categorically doubled down on March 31, saying that there would not be any exemptions for tariffs.

US trade representative Jamieson Greer presented another account, according to The New York Times that reported his testimony on Capitol Hill. “We’re trying to reset the global trading system,” Greer reportedly stated, assuring that it was not market manipulation.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren was much more brutal with her allegations. “Did Trump help insiders cash in on his tariff flip-flopping? It sure looks like corruption,” Warren posted on X.

“I’m calling for an investigation into whether President Trump manipulated the market to benefit his Wall Street donors—all while working people and small businesses paid the price,” added the Democrat senator.

Oddly, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the market watchdog in the US is yet to comment on the wild volume movement at Wall Street on Wednesday following Trump’s call to his followers to ‘buy’, and then pausing tariffs, sending shares up.

Business