Fox News anchor insists Trump tariffs aren't tanking markets after 350-point drop

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by more than 350 points on Friday in reaction to Trump’s latest tariffs, hitting four-month lows — but a Fox News anchor insisted that this is nothing to worry about because the markets are merely “off.”

The exchange occurred in an interview between Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and anchor Harris Faulkner, after Khanna pointed out how badly the markets are performing thanks to Trump.

“You know, it’s my job to be even-handed, fair and balanced and not to panic people,” Faulkner said. “The markets are not crashing. The markets are off about 300 points, and in fact we’ve seen this up and down, up and down. That’s why they call it the markets.”

Despite Faulkner’s claims, this isn’t just a typical “up and down” fluctuation.

The Dow dropped 3 percent this week and has posted losses for six straight weeks — its longest losing streak since June of 2011, and the first time it has closed below 25,000 since January. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes also fell sharply.

Friday’s market drop has been attributed to Trump’s Thursday night announcement of new tariffs on Mexican imports. Trump irrationally insisted that his threat would force Mexico to slow the tide of migrants from Central America to the United States.

Market experts slammed the tariffs, noting that they increase the costs of goods and services and are a drag on the economy.

“Trump trade policy might well mean a permanent state of endemic uncertainty and instability in the global trading system,” Krishna Guha, head of global policy and central bank strategy at Evercore ISI, told CNBC in a note on Friday.

Trump already has tariffs in place that are causing massive disruptions in global trade, hurting American farmers and other businesses.

Congressional Budget Office director Keith Hall said on Wednesday that Trump’s tariff policy may soon lead to a “downgrade” of U.S. economic growth.

Combined with Trump’s new Mexico tariffs, things could get even worse.

Tariffs could “act as an anchor on global growth and market sentiment for 18 months, increasing the chances of a recession,” Tom Essaye of The Sevens Report wrote on Friday.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.