Trump looks for deals amid wild stock swings

STOCKS FELL FOR A THIRD CONSECUTIVE DAY Monday as markets reel from ongoing uncertainty over President Trump's sweeping new tariffs and business leaders' warnings of potentially dire consequences.

Monday's closing was more of a mixed bag for investors compared to steep drops late last week. The Dow fell 349 points, or 0.91 percent, and the S&P 500 fell 0.23 percent. The Nasdaq Composite ended relatively flat.

Trump, pressed during an Oval Office appearance alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on whether his tariffs on many countries will be permanent or are meant as a negotiating tactic, insisted: "They can both be true." 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference Monday that the European Union is "ready to negotiate" with the United States to resolve the tariff dispute. 

"This is a major turning point for the United States," she said. "Nonetheless, we stand ready to negotiate with the United States."

And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. is opening trade negotiations with Japan over the steep tariff hike.

But ... Trump said the trade deficit between the U.S. and China must be resolved before he is willing to negotiate a deal on tariffs he placed on Beijing, which has responded to his initial push by hiking tariffs on U.S. imports.

Bessent said Sunday that dozens of countries have come to the administration to discuss ways to remove "non-tariff trade barriers," reduce tariffs and halt "currency manipulation" on their side.

"They’ve been bad actors for a long time. And it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away, be it in days or weeks," Bessent said on NBC’s "Meet the Press."

Business leaders continued to speak out Monday about the Trump administration's impact on the economy.

• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: "The economy is weakening as we speak."

• Billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman: "The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president — in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress — are going to be severely negative." 

• JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon: "Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth."

• Former Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard: "The main thing is that this has dramatically raised the risk of a Smoot-Hawley type outcome."

Goldman Sachs also hiked the probability of a recession to 45 percent.

The market surged — albeit briefly — Monday as news spread that Trump may pause his tariff order as countries try to negotiate a more favorable position. But the White House quickly dismissed the tariff delay chatter as "Fake News."

The Hill's Alex Gangitano has the details on how the short market shift was fueled by a post by a verified social media account: "The post caused major moves on the stock market, with a surge followed by a plunge within seconds."

All three major stock indexes jumped with the potential pause news, but they quickly fell back into negative territory after the report was debunked.

A CNBC spokesperson also confirmed to The Hill that the network aired a banner containing unconfirmed information about a possible pause before reporters corrected the erroneous report live on air.

Amid global market unease and dire warnings from economists and business leaders, Trump debuted a new vocabulary word Monday to take aim at critics of his tariff rollout: "Panican." 

"The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!" he wrote in a Truth Social post, bestowing the new nickname to people concerned by the immediate impact of his policies.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is launching a new virtual "war room" to push back on the White House and streamline party messaging.

The effort will focus heavily on beefing up the party’s rapid response and mobilization, with four primary goals: expanding Democratic reach into “new information spaces,” engaging in “aggressive daily messaging to counter the Trump administration,” using “creative opposition tactics” to counter GOP efforts and utilizing online tools “to combat the lies from the right.”

DNC Chair Ken Martin said of the party’s new “around the clock” endeavor:

"While Donald Trump continues to push an agenda that raises costs, destroys jobs, and ruins lives, he also continues to lie, spin, and cheat his way out of accountability. And the DNC is doubling down on its efforts to provide the American people with real facts and accurate information about the impact of his policies."

Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee are calling on committee chair and key Trump ally Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to hold a hearing on Trump's tariffs.

"Tariffs can be critical to grow American industry and promote good manufacturing jobs. But many of the president’s tariffs lack a coherent strategy, generating economic chaos and giving giant corporations an excuse to raise prices on Americans," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Scott on Sunday.

• Of note: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is scheduled to be on Capitol Hill this week for hearings with Senate Finance on Tuesday and House Ways & Means on Wednesday.