Trump calls his tariffs economic 'medicine' after trillions wiped out from U.S. stock market

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said foreign governments would have to pay "a lot of money" to lift sweeping tariffs that he characterized as "medicine," as financial markets indicated another week of steep losses could be in store.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated he was not concerned about market losses that have already wiped out nearly $6 trillion US in value from U.S. stocks.

"I don't want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something," he said.

Trump said that over the weekend, he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia, who hope to convince him to lower tariffs as high as 50 per cent due to take effect this week.

"They are coming to the table. They want to talk, but there's no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis," he said.

Trump's tariff announcement last week jolted economies around the world, triggering retaliatory levies from China and sparking fears of a global trade war and recession.

On Sunday morning talk shows, the president's top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the United States in the global trade order.

They also tried to minimize the economic shocks from last week's tumultuous rollout. Wall Street stock futures opened sharply lower on Sunday, in a sign of further turbulence.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said more than 50 nations had started negotiations with the U.S. since last Wednesday's announcement.

"He's created maximum leverage for himself," Bessent said on NBC's Meet the Press.

Neither Bessent nor the other officials named the countries or offered details about the talks. But simultaneously negotiating with multiple governments could pose a logistical challenge for the Trump administration and prolong economic uncertainty.

Bessent said there was "no reason" to anticipate a recession, citing stronger-than-anticipated U.S. jobs growth last month, before the tariffs were announced.

JPMorgan economists now estimate the tariffs will result in full-year U.S. gross domestic product declining by 0.3 per cent, down from an earlier estimate of 1.3 per cent growth, and that the unemployment rate will climb to 5.3 per cent from the current 4.2 per cent.

The Republican president spent the weekend in Florida, playing golf and posting a video of his swing to social media on Sunday.