U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stands by him aboard Air Force One on his return to Washington, D.C., U.S., March 9, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
President Donald Trump has dismissed the growing chorus of CEOs, investors and policymakers who are pleading with the White House for greater clarity about his sweeping tariff agenda.
“They always say that. ‘We want clarity,'” Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday.
“They have plenty of clarity,” the president told “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo.
Appeals to the White House from the business community to provide more concrete guidance, Trump said, are little more than talking points. “They just use that — like almost a sound bite.”
Pressed by Bartiromo on whether there would be “clarity for the business community,” Trump’s reply was telling.
“I think so, but you know, the tariffs could go up as time goes by, and they may go up, and you know, I don’t know if it’s predictability.”
Bartiromo interjected: “That’s not clarity.”
Hours after the full interview aired, the start of a new week of tariff-fueled fears and heightened economic uncertainty sent futures lower Sunday evening.
Stocks were set to tumble further when markets opened Monday. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down nearly 500 points, or 1.2%, on Monday morning, while S&P 500 futures fell 1.4% and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 1.6%.
The comments capped off a week marked by unpredictability about both Trump’s tariffs and the broader strength of the U.S. economy.
The S&P 500 fell 3.10%, for its worst weekly mark since September. The Dow fell 2.37%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 3.45%.
At the center of the storm were Trump’s stiff 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, which were initially paused for a month, then restarted Tuesday, only to be reined in Wednesday and then partially paused for another month on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Trump and multiple officials in his administration warned that Americans could be in store for some economic strain — including higher prices. But they insisted any adverse impacts would be temporary.
Confusion surrounding Trump’s constantly shifting trade plans has left investors uncertain about what’s coming next.
While Trump has downplayed the impact of his unpredictable trade policies on domestic markets, Wall Street analysts have not.
“We still have no clarity on the economy moving forward with the Trump turmoil,” wrote Byron Anderson, head of fixed income at Laffer Tengler Investments.
“The longer we have chaos and turmoil from Trump, the higher the probability that we will eventually have data trend negative,” he wrote in a Friday note.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Trump’s latest remarks about his tariffs, or about the widespread confusion surrounding his agenda.
The coming week promises plenty of new economic data to test the competing theories.
Due out Monday is the New York Fed survey of consumer expectations, followed by the Wednesday release of February’s consumer price index.
Thursday will see a fresh set of producer price data, before finishing the week with a University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading on Friday.
Now, as the Trump administration embarks on a monthlong reassessment of America’s trade relationships around the world, the negative impacts of uncertainty, felt over the past few weeks, could be magnified.
“Markets fear uncertainty more than they fear bad news,” wrote Mark Malek, chief investment officer at Siebert Financial. “25% tariffs are easier to price in than ‘maybe 10%, maybe more, maybe less.'”
It’s not just companies and investors who need greater clarity before they make major decisions.
The Federal Reserve does, too.
Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday said the central bank is “well positioned to wait for greater clarity” while the Trump administration implements “significant policy changes in four distinct areas: trade, immigration, fiscal policy, and regulation.”
Speaking at the U.S. Monetary Policy Forum, Powell said it would be “the net effect of these policy changes that will matter for the economy and for the path of monetary policy.”
For now, he said, “uncertainty around the changes and their likely effects remains high.”
The Fed, like so many others, is “focused on separating the signal from the noise as the outlook evolves,” he added.
— CNBC’s Jesse Pound contributed reporting.