As Donald Trump launched his trade war on April 2, billionaire Republican donor Ken Langone knew it would decimate Home Depot, the company he helped build into America’s best-known DIY store.
His gloom deepened as Trump followed up his “liberation day” with a tariff regime on China so steep that many experts said it would amount to a de facto embargo on goods from the world’s biggest exporter.
The reaction was twofold. First, capital markets delivered a withering verdict, with a sharp sell-off in US Treasuries, the dollar, and global equities wiping out trillions of dollars of market value and raising fears of a financial crisis. The bond market moves alarmed Trump, who appeared to be on the cusp of a crisis like the one that toppled Liz Truss after a month-and-a-half as UK prime minister.