Donald Trump says tariffs going 'better than expected' as trillions wiped off global economy

Donald Trump has sensationally claimed his tarrifs are "going far better than expected" after wiping trillions from the in an afternoon.

The Commander-in-Chief wrote an all-caps post on his social media platform calling on members of the public to "hang tough" after his tariffs brought global economic misery, with trading across Europe, Asia and the US opening to record losses. US suffered their most significant losses since the pandemic began in 2020 on Thursday, less than a day after the announcement, with the DOW Jones tumbling by 3.9 percent, Nasdaq by nearly six percent, and the S&P 500 down five percent.

In Europe, stocks closed 2.7 percent lower as the tariffs were expected to hit key sectors, with key exporters to the US set to lose billions. Asian countries, many hit by war and disaster - including Thailand and , which are rebuilding following a massive magnitude 7.7 earthquake last week - are also extremely hard hit.

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Tariffs on goods from southeastern nations like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia reaching between 46 and 49 percent. But Mr Trump appeared positively jubilant amid the chaos after waking up on Friday morning, praising news that the US added several hundred thousand jobs to the market in March.

He wrote: "GREAT JOB NUMBERS, FAR BETTER THAN EXPECTED. IT’S ALREADY WORKING. HANG TOUGH, WE CAN’T LOSE!!!" Despite sweeping cuts to the federal workforce that month, 228,000 additional jobs were added to the economy. They were in health care, social assistance, transportation and warehousing and retail, and marked a significant increase on economists' predictions of 140,000.

The unhinged post is the second he has put up on Truth Social today, with one made not much earlier claiming "many investors" were heading to the US and assuring he would not change tune on the tariffs. 

He said: "TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.

"THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!"

The President's attempted reassurance may not convince many people keeping a keen eye on the state of the US economy, which took another turn this morning.

Following news that plans to retaliate against the US by announcing 34 percent tariffs on US goods, the S&P 500 fell by 2.48 percent, dipping by 133 points to 5,262.68. The Dow Jones fell by 982 poins down 2.4 percent to 39,563 points. With that, the recent record high has been erased, placing it in "correction territory" and the wider market in bear territory.

Mr Trump levelled Chinese officials a warning in another Truth Social post, stating the nation "cannot afford" and claiming they "panicked".

He wrote: "CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED - THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!"