Trump’s biggest opponent right now isn’t China, it’s the S&P 500
President Donald Trump has spent the last three months tearing through Washington like a battering ram, but the one thing stopping him isn’t China, NATO, or Congress. It’s the S&P 500.
Since returning to the White House, he’s bulldozed federal agencies, grabbed more power, pissed off allies, and flipped trade deals. But none of those made him back off—until the stock market tanked.
Every time the market bleeds, Trump pulls the brakes. Earlier this month, he rolled out a bunch of tariffs, then slammed them into a 90-day pause days later when US stocks sank and bond investors started panicking.
Source: TradingView
Just earlier this week, after pushing tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%, he suddenly toned down the rhetoric. And after tossing around the idea of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, he walked it back once the markets nose-dived again.
Trump reacts fast when stocks dive
According to reports from The Wall Street Journal, these reversals weren’t part of some clever chess strategy. Trump changed course after being shown market fallout projections by his team—Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told him staying aggressive would make things worse.
And he actually kind of admitted it, saying he put tariffs on hold because “people were getting a little queasy” after watching the bond market meltdown.