On-again, off-again tariffs, mass government layoffs, funding cuts and immigration crackdowns have seriously spooked Wall Street, which is emphatically rejecting President Donald Trump’s chaotic economic agenda.
The market that embraced Trump for most of his first term and in the lead-up to his second has turned on the president. The S&P 500 closed in correction territory Thursday, falling 10% from the all-time high it set just three weeks ago.
The Dow is approaching correction too. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell into a correction more than a week ago.
And the Russell 2000, made up of smaller businesses, which are typically more exposed to shifting economic winds, has fallen a stunning 18.4% from a high hit just after the election, which was within a whisker of its all-time record.
Even as stocks are set for a modest comeback Friday – the Dow is on pace to rise 200 points, or 0.6%, at the open, S&P 500 futures were 0.7% higher and Nasdaq futures were up 0.9% – sentiment on Wall Street has been overwhelmingly negative. CNN’s Fear and Greed Index has plunged into “Extreme Fear.”
“The stock market is losing its confidence in the Trump 2.0 policies,” said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research.
Instead, investors have poured money into traditional safe havens like government bonds and gold. Treasury yields, which trade in the opposite direction to prices, have tumbled over the past month. And spot gold prices on Friday hit $3,000 a troy ounce for the first time in history.
Traders have grown increasingly concerned that Trump’s policies could inflict serious damage on the economy. Despite Trump’s insistence that stocks are falling because of the inflationary problems inherited from former President Joe Biden, the market had boomed after Trump’s November election in hopes that his promised tax cuts and deregulation would fuel another economic boom.
But Trump in the months before he took office began threatening massive tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners. The Dow, which was near its record high when Trump started posting messages on Truth Social about tariffs on November 25, hit one more record high a week later but has fallen nearly 10% since. Russell 2000 never recovered.
“This market is just blatantly sick and tired of the back and forth on trade policy,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth Management. “It feels as though the administration continues to move the goal posts. With that much uncertainty, it’s impossible for investors to have any confidence.”
Meanwhile, problems are growing for the economy, and Trump’s policies could exacerbate them. Consumer confidence in February registered its biggest monthly decline since August 2021 and fell the most in the first two months of any year since 2009, according to the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index. A separate consumer sentiment survey, from the University of Michigan, showed the biggest fall in February since records began in 1978.
Consumers aren’t spending as much as they used to, as concerns about the economy weigh on their purchasing decisions. Target, Walmart, Delta Air Lines, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dollar General and Kohl’s said in their most recent earnings reports that tariffs and inflation are leading people to spend less.
Trump acknowledged tariffs could cause a “disturbance” and has declined to rule out a recession, saying his economic plan could be painful for some at first.
Mainstream economists, however, believe Trump may be underplaying how damaging his policies could be. Uncertainty about tariffs is paralyzing businesses who are unsure whether to hire and invest. Mass layoffs of federal workers could seriously damage local economies. And immigration crackdowns could badly hurt the already labor-sapped health care, construction and agriculture industries.
JPMorgan economists alarmingly wrote last week that the US economy now has a 40% chance of falling into a recession this year. That’s up from 30% forecast by JPMorgan at the start of the year. The bank cited a “less business-friendly stance” from US policy, including a more aggressive trade war than feared, as well as “aggressive efforts” by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to slash federal hiring and spending.
“We see a material risk that the US falls into recession this year owing to extreme US policies,” JPMorgan economists wrote in a note to clients last Friday.
Suddenly ignoring the market
Trump has been noticeably quiet about stocks lately. During his first term he routinely tweeted about market records as a sign of America’s economic might.
Visiting the New York Stock Exchange as recently as December 12, Trump called the stock market “very important” in an interview with CNBC.
“The stock market is very — all of it, you know, all of it together, it’s very important,” Trump said. “I sort of joked that I actually bought the building across the street because the stock exchange was here. It’s a big deal.”.
But he has changed his tune as stocks first erased their post-inauguration gains and then their post-election gains.
“You can’t really watch the stock market,” Trump said Sunday in an interview with Fox.
“Markets are going to go up and they’re going to go down,” he said in the Oval Office Tuesday.
“I think a lot of the stock market going down was because of the really bad four years that we had, when you look at inflation and all of the other problems, I mean wars and inflation and so many other problems,” Trump said Wednesday at the White House.
But Wall Street doesn’t like being ignored – it’s trying to send the president a message. And it’s a painful one.
Tumbling markets can pose a problem in and of themselves. Seeing markets in the red can sap consumers’ confidence, because many Americans incorrectly believe the Dow Jones serves as a barometer for the health of the US economy. But many people also rely on stocks for their retirement funds, and watching stocks sink sharply gives them pause about their financial position.
“Obviously the stock market can have a significant negative wealth effect if it continues to take a dive,” Yardeni said. “Trump is going to have to rethink his notion that it’s okay to let the market go down while he is experimenting with tariffs and slashing federal payrolls.”
Investors feel Trump has turned his back on them. Now they are turning their back on him.
The-CNN-Wire
Trump falsely claimed US spent $350B on military aid to Ukraine
It’s possible to arrive at varying totals depending on how military aid is defined or by considering how much money was allocated — as opposed to actually paid out — by the U.S. government, but none of these totals amounts to $350 billion.
In early 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that the United States had spent $350 billion in military aid to Ukraine for its war with Russia.
On Feb. 19, he wrote in a Truth Social post (archived) that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “talked the United States into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won.”
(@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social)
Trump repeated the claim in a meeting with Zelenskyy on Feb. 28 (see C-Span video at the 45-minute mark) and in a March 4 speech to Congress (see YouTube video at the 1:27:25 mark). “We gave you $350 billion for military equipment,” Trump said to Zelenskyy.
Trump’s claim is incorrect. While it is possible to arrive at varying totals using different ways to categorize or count the financial figures, none amounts to $350 billion. As of this writing, the United States had allocated nearly $183 billion for the response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to the U.S. government’s inspector general overseeing the situation. That amount includes more than just what the U.S. government directly sent to Ukraine — and only $83 billion had actually been paid out as of December 2024. Thus, we rate this claim false.
Understanding what ‘aid to Ukraine’ actually means
A U.S. inspector general report from late 2024 showed that the $183 billion included both funding spent in the United States and funding sent to countries aside from Ukraine (see pages 27 and 32 for full breakdowns). According to the Ukraine Oversight website, the vast majority of the money was allocated in four different areas: America’s European military presence, economic support to Ukraine, replenishing Department of Defense equipment, direct security assistance to Ukraine.
The U.S. European Command, which oversees military operations across Europe, and the European Deterrence Initiative, which bolsters American military presence in Europe for “deterrence of Russian aggression,” have received $22.6 billion of $44.8 billion allocated specifically for America’s European military presence, as of December 2024. The Economic Support Fund under the U.S. Agency for International Development was allocated another $34.1 billion, with $31.1 billion paid. Under U.S. law, the fund’s money is “available for economic programs only and may not be used for military or paramilitary purposes.”
This shows how the phrase “military aid to Ukraine” can be a bit misleading: A large amount of American “aid” to Ukraine pays for activities related to the war but not necessarily paid to Ukraine directly. This includes, “United States training of Ukrainian forces, global humanitarian assistance, additional costs of U.S. surge forces in Europe, and intelligence support,” according to the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a bipartisan research organization focused on national security. The center estimated that “90 percent of military aid [for Ukraine] is spent in the United States” to, for example, build up weapons systems that are then sent to Ukraine.
Direct military aid to Ukraine
As for direct military aid, within the $183 billion total, $45.8 billion in allocations (with $7 billion paid out) has gone to replenishing Defense Department’s equipment “drawn down to deliver weapons and materiel to Ukraine.” The United States also allocated $33.2 billion (with $11.2 billion paid out so far) to give military equipment and services to Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Thus, the total money allocated in connection to Ukraine is about $183 billion, still far from the $350 billion figure.
Just adding up the amount to replenish the DOD’s equipment and direct military assistance to Ukraine totals $79 billion in allocations, with $18.2 billion paid out, even further from Trump’s claim that the U.S. government gave Ukraine “$350 billion for military equipment.” Trump’s own State Department contradicted him in a March 4 statement about freezing military aid to Ukraine.
It is also important to note these official numbers are still up for debate: A March 6 analysis by Economists for Ukraine argued U.S. government estimates are not sound due to “inflated valuations of older weapons stockpiles and other contributing factors” and put the real value of military assistance to Ukraine at “about $18.3 billion.”
A running list of Trump’s executive orders
In the first few months of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, he made a flurry of moves to shape the national narrative on issues as wide-ranging as designating English as the country’s official language, ending the “forced use” of paper straws and placing tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
Presidential actions can take different forms, including executive orders, memoranda and proclamations. In this breakdown, we focus only on executive orders (officially logged in the Federal Register).
Let us note here: An executive order is an official document issued by the U.S. president that shapes the way the federal government operates and sends a message as to the president’s top priorities in office. It is not a piece of legislation and does not require approval from Congress. The only way to overturn an executive order is through another executive order. Within hours of his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump revoked dozens of former President Joe Biden’s executive orders. Historically, however, Congress has challenged executive orders and can also delay an order from taking effect, such as by removing funding.
Below is a running list of executive orders that Trump has issued during his second term. We will update it as he signs more.
Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s use of wartime powers to target Venezuelan gang members
Hours earlier, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against the group, saying the United States was facing an “invasion” from a criminal organization that has been linked to kidnapping, extortion, organized crime and contract killings.
In invoking the act, Trump said members of the gang were “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States” with the goal of destabilizing the nation.
The act, which has only been used in times of war, could allow the president to bypass the due process rights of migrants categorized as threats and rapidly deport them.
“This proclamation is as lawless as anything the Trump administration has done,” Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, who argued for the order in a hearing on Saturday, told Reuters in an interview.
Under Trump’s proclamation, all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are determined to be members of the gang, are within the United States and are not naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the country are “liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
Civil rights groups and some Democrats have criticized the idea of reviving it to fuel mass deportations.
LAWSUITS AND CRITICISM
Trump made the threat posed by the gang a regular feature of his campaign speeches as evidence of what he called a spike in “migrant crime.” Numerous studies show immigrants do not commit crimes at higher rates than native-born Americans.
William Vasquez, a immigration lawyer in North Carolina, posted on social media that this is the first time the act “has been applied against migrants from a country with which the U.S. is not at war.”
Earlier on Saturday, Boasberg had temporarily blocked the U.S. government from deporting five Venezuelans after two non-profit groups sued, saying invocation of the act would be illegal as it has only been “a power invoked in a time of war, and plainly only applies to warlike actions.”
The court granted a temporary restraining order, stopping the government from deporting them for 14 days. The ACLU said the Venezuelans are seeking asylum and have been misidentified as being part of Tren de Aragua.
Trump, a Republican, returned to the White House on January 20 vowing to deport millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. But his initial deportations have lagged behind those of his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, who faced high levels of illegal immigration and rapidly deported many recent border crossers.
Trump has taken an array of actions to step up immigration enforcement, sending additional troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and reassigning federal agents to help track down immigration offenders.
Reporting by James Oliphant and Timothy Gardner in Washington and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Michelle Nichols, Deepa Babington, Nick Zieminski and William Mallard
US court allows Trump to enforce ban on DEI programs, for now
Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sam Holmes
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