This article was originally published by George Calder at The Exposé
A Presidency That Moves The Markets
Since returning to the office in January 2025, President Donald Trump’s social media posts and tariff decisions have coincided with historic swings in the stock market – swings worth trillions of dollars. Having already drawn scrutiny from world leaders, lawmakers, economists, businesses, and traders alike, the sheer magnitude and timing of these movements raise the question: are these mere coincidences, or are we witnessing a calculated manipulation of the financial markets
Key Dates Timeline
April 2 – “Liberation Day” tariffs announced; global markets lose $6 trillion in 48 hours
April 9 – Trump posts “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”; markets rebound sharply
May 8 – Trump encourages investors to buy stocks before announcing tariff rollbacks on May 12
June 5 – Musk criticizes Trump bill; feud escalates; Tesla drops 25% in two days
June 11 – Musk publicly apologizes to Trump after deleting the Epstein tweet; Tesla begins recovery
April 2, 2025: $6 Trillion lost
Dubbed “Liberation Day”, April 2 marked a dramatic reshaping of US trade policy and a sharp decline in global markets. President Trump announced a blanket 10% duty on imports from almost all countries, with additional “reciprocal” tariffs on specific states – China’s original 34% surcharge and the EU’s 20% being the most notable.
Described by Trump as “economic self-defense”, these tariffs are intended to increase domestic productivity in the US and shrink trade deficits with other nations. Global markets recoiled, but the White House framed it as a bold move toward economic nationalism.
In just 48 hours, over $6 trillion was lost from global equity markets. The S&P 500 dropped 6%, marking its steepest two-day decline since March 2020, and the Dow Jones plunged more than 4,000 points.
The biggest losers were the technology, semiconductors, and automotive sectors, with safe-haven assets like gold soaring, signalling investor panic.
April 9, 2025: The Trillion Dollar Truth
Posts on Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, are known as “Truths”, and at 9:37 am ET, the President declared, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”.
Hours later, all tariffs that the White House had previously announced would affect trade with most countries in the world, and sent the stock market into a sharp decline, were paused for 90 days. Instantly, the S&P 500 index (SPY) alone gained $1.4 trillion in total market capitalization by the end of the day, with a 9.5% surge happening in the final trading hours, marking the biggest one-day gain since the financial crisis in 2008.
Tesla (TSLA) alone gained $50 billion in value, which hindsight tells us merely foreshadowed the volatile period to come for the company, and the relationship between its CEO and the President.
According to Bloomberg, the strongest market rally in either of Trump’s presidential terms took place between April 9 and May 8, during which the S&P 500 index rose 14%. On May 8, it’s reported that Trump told a White House press pool, “You better go out and buy stocks now”, before a May 12 announcement saw the de-escalation of the US-China trade war and a decrease in tariffs to just 10%. The sudden rally that followed erased all market losses incurred following Liberation Day.
This cycle became known as the “TACO Trade” (Trump Always Chickens Out), following a shock, plunge, and partial reversal pattern – a now-seemingly familiar rhythm in the 2025 market.
The timing of these moves sparked calls for an investigation:
“It is unconscionable that insiders may have actively profited from market volatility triggered by presidential messaging.” — Senator Adam Schiff, TIME
ProPublica uncovered trading activity by Trump allies and campaign donors in stocks affected by tariff changes, raising concerns about coordinated manipulation.
Even NPR and WSJ reported that members of Congress made trades that could indicate prior knowledge of policy shifts.
June 5-10, 2025: Tesla Collapses (And Rebounds) Amid Musk Feud
On the morning of June 5, Musk criticized the “Big Beautiful Bill” of Trump’s administration, which targeted clean energy and manufacturing in the country. Calling it a “disgusting abomination”, the Tesla CEO claimed it favors legacy automakers over innovation.
By 11 am ET, President Trump responded via Truth Social, stating, “Musk is a crybaby billionaire who wants handouts, not competition”.
Musk responded with what became known as “the digital grenade” at the President, stating on X, he “is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
During the afternoon, the budding feud was covered by media outlets worldwide, and Tesla stock dropped to $272 at its lowest point in the day – a 25% decline from a recent high of $363, ousting approximately $250 billion of company value from its estimated market cap of $1 trillion. The collapse ranks among the largest two-day losses for any company in history.
Investor panic increases as they anticipate regulatory changes from the Trump administration to deliberately damage Tesla’s outlook. By the evening, speculation had started around whether the feud was real or staged. Put options – trades which benefit if the value of the stock drops rather than increases – had quadrupled in advance of the news, indicating prior notice of the impending argument and therefore the possibility of insider trading.
Musk’s provocative tweet was deleted on June 6, and he remained silent despite the dropping of Tesla’s value, the growing concern that the company’s government contracts might be cancelled, and regulatory retaliation looming from the President. In the meantime, short sellers – those betting on the decline of the stock price – continued to profit significantly.
Rumours emerged on June 7 of backchannel discussions between Trump and Musk while the markets were closed, and on June 9, the stock rose from $281 to $309 intraday, reaching as high as $327 on June 10, following the public apology from Musk: “I regret some of my posts about President [Trump] last week. They went too far.”
Even after Musk’s public apology, which increased his personal net worth by almost $200 million in one day, suspicions lingered over who might have profited from the feud’s timing.
The 20% jump in Tesla stock price from the lowest point during the online sparring to the resolution just days later, plus the suspicions about how genuine the feud itself was, fuelled further speculation about whether this was really just a market manipulation ploy.
“Options traders priced in a 5.4% move… but this was triple that.”
— Bloomberg analyst on June 7
Regulatory Outlook: Can the System Catch Up?
“We cannot allow market integrity to be undermined by off-the-cuff tweets or backroom deals.” —/ Senate Banking Committee
Despite bipartisan concern, the SEC has yet to launch a formal inquiry. Some say it’s ill-equipped to police a market now driven as much by memes and personalities as fundamentals.
Not everyone sees foul play:
“He’s telling the American people exactly what he believes. That’s transparency, not manipulation.” — Steve Bannon, War Room podcast
A Visual Recap Tesla in June 2025
Conclusion: When Tweets Move Trillions
The story of 2025 so far is not about whether markets react to politics – they always have. Instead, this questions how predictable, unregulated and profitable the reaction has become.
President Trump is not the first leader to move markets with a message. But when social media becomes the main delivery mechanism to make sudden announcements about major policy changes, and when billions – or trillions – can be gained or lost with a single post, the integrity of the entire global financial system itself comes under scrutiny.
Was this market mastery, or manipulation in plain sight?
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