(April 4): Vice-President JD Vance sought to cast a global rout in stocks as a temporary pain as the White House downplayed the immediate effects of President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda.

“I frankly thought in some ways it could be worse in the markets, because this is a big transition,” Vance said in an interview with Newsmax. “You saw the president said earlier today, it’s like a patient who was very sick, we did the operation, and now it’s time to make the patient better. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Vance’s comments came a day after President Donald Trump unveiled tariffs on nearly every US trading partner, sparking a sell-off that culminated in the worst one-day drop for the S&P 500 in nearly five years. US stocks erased US$2.5 trillion (RM11 trillion) in collective value.

Yet the White House has shown little appetite to reverse course from Trump’s long-promised signature economic policy. A global minimum tariff is set to take effect just after midnight, Washington time, on April 5, with higher levies on trading partners where the US runs larger trade deficits set for April 9.

“Look, one bad day in the stock market compared to what President Trump said earlier today — and I think he’s right about this — we’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America,” Vance said.

Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja