The stock market tumbled early on Monday as the impact from President Donald Trump’s trade war spread around the world — and an erroneous post from a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, added to the chaos and uncertainty.
The market dramatically began to rally around 10:15 a.m. after an X user who goes by the name Walter Bloomberg posted that the White House was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs after watching a CNBC interview with Kevin Hassett, one of Trump’s economic advisers.
“HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA,” the user, who is not affiliated with Bloomberg News, said in a now-deleted post.
There was just one problem — there was no evidence that the post was true. After Fox News hosts asked Hassett about the possibility of a pause, he gave a noncommittal answer. But still, the markets reacted positively to the rumor as it spread.
Since Trump announced widespread tariffs on dozens of countries around the world last week on a day he dubbed “Liberation Day,” the stock market began tanking. But Trump and White House officials continued to defend the tariffs, even as it became clear that they would do serious damage to the global economy.
Shortly after the false post about a pause, an official White House X account said it was “fake news.” And with that, the markets began to tumble again. It was the perfect symbol for the amount of unpredictability Trump’s trade war was causing — one singular post on social media could change everything.
The unpredictable nature of the massive tariffs placed on nearly every country in the world has caused economists to speculate that the U.S. economy will enter a recession as early as this year. For consumers, it’s not just the stock market crash that they have to worry about, but also higher prices of everyday goods like clothes, toys and electronics as other countries retaliate with their own tariffs.
And if there wasn’t enough to fear with a worsening economy, dubious social media posts will be supercharging the mayhem.
The X user’s name — Bloomberg — coupled with their decision to pay $8 a month for a verification badge makes it appear as if they are a member of the media. It turns out that any random user can affect the stock market, all thanks to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter.
After Musk bought the site for $44 billion in 2022, he changed its name to X, and stripped government officials, journalists, celebrities and brands of their verification badges, known colloquially as blue checks. Then, he began charging users for badges, which would allow their content to be boosted by the algorithm. Since then, the platform, which was once a destination for breaking news, has become a toxic concoction of unchecked bigotry, spam accounts and fake news.
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The president, however, doesn’t seem to care that social media is making his ill-advised trade war even worse. Shortly after the 90-day tariff pause post was deleted, Trump took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to threaten China with even more tariffs.
“[I]f China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025,” he wrote, “the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th.”