'Extremely dangerous': Harvard professor raises red flag on Trump's tariffs as markets tank

US stock futures plunged on Friday, pointing to deeper losses on Wall Street after China struck back with new tariffs in response to the Trump administration 's sweeping import duties. The tit-for-tat move intensified investor concerns, sending global markets into a tailspin and wiping out trillions in equity value.

The fallout from Washington's latest tariff offensive, estimated to have already erased $2.4 trillion from US markets, sparked immediate retaliation from Beijing, which imposed 34 per cent duties on American imports and announced plans to file a complaint at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Former US treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, a Harvard professor, slammed the market chaos triggered by Trump's policies. "Today was the worst stock market experience in five years. Usually when you have a terrible stock market experience, it's because a bank fails, a pandemic, a hurricane or because some other country does something."

"We don't have these kinds of stock market responses in response to policies that the President of the United States is proud of. That is something that is entirely without precedent. It is extremely dangerous," he added.

Today was the worst stock market experience in five years. Usually when you have a terrible stock market experience, it's because a bank fails, a pandemic, a hurricane or because some other country does something. We don't have these kinds of stock market responses in response to…

— Lawrence H. Summers (@LHSummers) April 4, 2025

Social media reflected the deep divide in public sentiment. Critics lambasted Trump's trade tactics, blaming them for job losses and economic uncertainty. Gabe Sanchez, political commentator and host of What Was That Show, cited March's 205 per cent surge in layoffs as a direct result of the escalating trade war .

"Layoffs in the US surged 205 per cent in March, hitting 275,240 job cuts - the worst since the height of the pandemic in 2020. Trump has kicked off a trade war based on fake numbers. And now? The stock market is in freefall," he said in a post.

Adding fuel to the controversy, Trump's media venture, Truth Social , was reported to have moved to offload shares just hours before the tariffs were announced. A late Tuesday filing revealed Trump Media and Technology Group's plan to sell over 142 million shares, raising concerns about insider foresight.

Meanwhile, former Obama campaign chair Jon Cooper pointed to China's swift retaliation as a key trigger behind the worsening market slide. "Financial markets are now plunging even further," he said, warning of the global economic consequences.

The longer Trump’s tariffs remain in effect, the more harm will be done to the US economy and the higher consumer prices will rise. I spoke today to the head of a company that manufactures household appliances, who said they’ll definitely have to increase their prices once the…

— Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 (@joncoopertweets) April 4, 2025

The reality is that stocks are falling because they were propped up with laundered US taxpayer money through Ukraine and USAID. Trump cut off the "new money" tap and so they fall.

Markets were artificially propped up to make the Biden economy look successful. That is now…

— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) March 31, 2025

Despite the backlash, Trump remained defiant. Speaking to reporters before departing for his Florida golf resort, he predicted a stock market "boom" and confirmed sweeping new tariffs, a blanket 10 per cent import duty on all countries starting Saturday, with steeper levies targeting select nations to follow next week.