During a photo opportunity with Elon Musk and a fleet of Tesla vehicles on the South Lawn, Trump said that the “hard way to do it is exactly what [he is] doing” before promising that “the results are going to be 20 times greater.”

“Markets are going to go up and they’re going to go down. But you know what? We have to rebuild our country,” he added. “Nope, doesn’t concern me. I think some people are going to make great deals by buying stocks and bonds and all the things they’re buying. I think we’re going to have an economy that’s a real economy, not a fake economy.”

Only last week, Trump told the country during his joint address to Congress that there would likely be short-term economic “disturbances” amid his tariff trade war. Then days later, when asked about the possibility of a recession considering the likelihood that there will be negative economic growth during the first three months of this year, the president told Fox Business last weekend that he “[hates] to predict things like that.”

“There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big,” he said. “We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing.”

The comments sparked turmoil in the markets. Trading closed on Tuesday with the S&P 500 down 0.8% at under 5,600, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 500 points or 1.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.2%.

That was also after another day of confusion regarding Trump’s tariff policy toward Canada following the president’s announcement that he was doubling the steel and aluminum tariffs poised to be imposed on the United States’s northern neighbor on Wednesday to 50%.

Trump’s announcement was in response to Ontario Premier Doug Ford declaring he would introduce a 25% surcharge on electricity exported to the U.S. as the two countries trade tit-for-tat tariffs.

In a series of Truth Social posts starting Monday night, Trump asked whether Ford was “even allowed” to place a surcharge on electricity exports before announcing the metals amendments and demanding new concessions, including “immediately” dropping “their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products.”

“The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump wrote. “The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, “O Canada,” will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”

“Why would our Country allow another Country to supply us with electricity, even for a small area? Who made these decisions, and why?” the president continued. “Can you imagine Canada stooping so low as to use ELECTRICITY, that so affects the life of innocent people, as a bargaining chip and threat? They will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!”

White House officials did not provide any insight into Trump’s escalation of his tariff war but reiterated to the Washington Examiner that the president’s steel and aluminum duties would proceed as planned on Wednesday.

Later Tuesday, after a phone call between Trump and Ford, the White House announced the president would not implement the 50% tariffs against Canada in exchange for no electricity surcharge against Michigan, Minnesota, and New York from Ontario but recommitted to the 25% steel and aluminum duties.

Ford is also expected to meet with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday to discuss a “renewed” U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement.

Trump authorized the USMCA, along with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts, in 2019 to replace the North American Free Trade Alliance.

During Tuesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated Trump’s pledge that his economic agenda will usher in a new golden age in the U.S. and, instead, apportioned responsibility for the current stock market pain to former President Joe Biden. 

“We are in a period of economic transition. We are in a period of transition from the mess that was created by Joe Biden and the previous administration,” Leavitt told reporters. “Joe Biden left this country in an economic disaster.”

“President Trump will not repeat the trend of past American presidents who broke their promises to the American public and smiled while they stuck a knife in the back of American workers and shipped their jobs overseas,” she said. 

On relations with Canada itself, Leavitt took a significantly more aggressive stance, signaling that the White House now perceives the U.S.’s northern neighbor as a “competitor” rather than a “partner” or “ally.”

“The president is responding to the fact that Canada has been ripping off the United States of America and hard-working Americans for decades,” she said. “It is about dang time that we have a president who looks out for the interests of American workers and businesses.”

Trump’s tariffs against Canada and Mexico have been the most disruptive for all three economies. During his transition period, Trump announced that he would put 25% duties on all exports on the first day of his second administration, before delaying the levies for a month as Canada and Mexico tried to counter illegal immigration and drug trafficking across their shared borders to the president’s satisfaction.

The 25% tariffs went into effect last week before exemptions were quickly made, first, for the “Big Three” American automanufacturers and second for products covered by the North American trade agreement, shortened to the USMCA. The carve-outs resulted in about 50% of Mexican imports and 38% of Canadian imports being duty-exempt until April 2, though Canada has retained its retaliatory levies, including those on U.S. alcohol, such as Kentucky bourbon.

The increase of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. from 10% to 25% will also include ending all existing country exemptions and expanding current duties to include more downstream products. The new tariffs similarly include a carve-out for products made from steel “melted and poured” and aluminum “smelted and cast” in the U.S. These tariffs will most directly affect Canada and Mexico, in addition to Japan, South Korea, and Germany, as well as the domestic production of cars, houses, and beverages.

Wednesday’s tariffs coincide with the release of February’s consumer price index report, the first compiled using data entirely from Trump’s presidency. Inflation increased in January by 0.5% compared to December and 3% for the year ending January, higher than Dow Jones’s prediction of 0.3% and 2.9%, respectively.

This week’s focus on the economy was amplified by Trump’s appearance at the Business Roundtable on Tuesday afternoon after he hosted members of the Technology CEO Council, including the heads of Dell, HP, Intel, IBM, and Qualcomm, at the White House on Monday. That meeting was scheduled to last for an hour, but a later executive order signing ceremony was postponed, with the president not speaking with reporters all day as stocks tumbled.