Trump tariff fallout: Navarro downplays sell-off, while Musk slams his qualifications; tech and finance chiefs reportedly head to Mar-a-Lago

Americans nearing retirement and recent retirees said they were anxious and frustrated following a second day of market turmoil that hit their 401(k)s, NBC News reported.

Some said they are pausing big-ticket purchases and reconsidering home renovations, while others said they fear their quality of life will be adversely affected by all the turmoil.

"I'm just kind of stunned, and with so much money in the market, we just sort of have to hope we have enough time to recover," said Paula, 68, a former occupational health professional in New Jersey who retired three years ago.

Paula, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she feared retaliation for speaking out against Trump administration policies, said she was worried about what lies ahead.

"What we've been doing is trying to enjoy the time that we have, but you want to be able to make it last," Paula said Friday. "I have no confidence here."

— Daniella Silva of NBC News

France could see a 0.5 percentage point reduction in gross domestic product growth as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said in an interview on Saturday.

"Trump's policies could cost us more than 0.5% of our GDP," Bayrou said, according to excerpts published in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper.

"The imposition of these outrageous tariffs will lead to a global crisis (...). The risk of job losses is significant, as is that of an economic slowdown," he said.

Under Trump's plans announced on Wednesday, France will be subject to a general tariff of 20% along with other European Union countries.

After speaking with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Emmanuel Macron said earlier on Saturday the two countries reaffirmed their determination to "closely coordinate" positions in tariff discussions with Trump.

"A trade war is in no one's interest. We must stand united and resolute to protect our citizens and our businesses," he said in post on X.

— Reuters

President Donald Trump may hope his tariffs jump-start a renaissance in manufacturing in the United States, but the reality is not so simple, according to experts.

Morgan Stanley analyst Chris Snyder said he thinks tariffs are a "positive catalyst" for reshoring but that he doesn't expect a massive wave of projects returning to the U.S. in the near term. Right now, he sees small, quick turnaround investments that could boost output by about 2%, he said.

Consumer confidence has taken a hit — and that will be a factor in business' decisions on whether and when they will reshore, said Manish Kabra, Societe Generale's head of U.S. equity strategy. 

There also needs to be a significant investment in training America's workforce, experts say.

— Michelle Fox

Silicon Valley’s early return from the Trump administration so far in 2026 has been plunging valuations and delayed IPOs.

The leaders of Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Uber all made big donations — either personally or through their companies — to Trump's second inauguration. Over the past two trading sessions, the seven most valuable U.S. tech companies lost a combined $1.8 trillion in market cap.

With Wall Street selling out of risky assets on concern that widespread tariff hikes will punish the U.S. and global economy, the fallout has drifted down to the IPO market. Online lender Klarna and ticketing marketplace StubHub delayed their IPOs due to market turbulence, just weeks after filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and fintech company Chime is also reportedly delaying its listing.

— Ari Levy

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Friday said next week's earnings reports will provide a first look at how CEOs are dealing with the fallout of Trump's tariff plan.

Big bank earnings will kick off earnings season in the week ahead, and investors will also get to parse more inflation data.

No matter what the numbers reveal, however, Cramer said the market's direction will depend on Trump's next move. The tariff-driven market rout could end soon if Trump grants relief to trading partners, he said, or it could suddenly get worse as it did on Black Monday in 1987.

"If President Trump stays intransigent and does nothing to ameliorate the damage that I saw these last few days, I'm not going to be constructive here," Cramer said.

Even if earnings do come in ahead of expectations, souring economic expectations due to tariffs have already punished their stocks and could continue to do so next week, Cramer said.

"Our only real hope is that the president comes up with something that can turn this bear into a bull," Cramer said.

— Russell Leung

Where's Trump? The president is golfing today at his club in Jupiter, Florida, as the market continues to reel from his sweeping tariff announcement.

The president flew down to his home state of Florida on Thursday, one day after he announced his "reciprocal tariffs." He took part in a "LIV Dinner" for the LIV Golf tour on Thursday night.

On Friday, he went to Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, before attending a fundraising dinner for a super PAC that backs Trump, MAGA Inc.

Trump on Saturday is golfing at his course in Jupiter, where the senior club championships are taking place.

The White House said that Trump "won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship ... and advances to the Championship Round tomorrow."

Democrats pounced on Trump's trip to Florida amid the fallout from his tariff announcement, taking to social media to criticize the president.

"Recession fears are rising. The stock market is tanking. But don't worry, Donald Trump is golfing," Democratic Rep. Jason Crow (Colorado) wrote on X.

— Erin Doherty

The National Association of Wine Retailers said tariffs will have a material impact on the wine industry, resulting in significant revenue reductions, layoffs and business closings. 

"We have every reason to believe that the recently enacted tariffs on wines imported from other countries, as well as tariffs on other goods, will result in a significant contraction of the wine market in the United States," the group said in a statement.

The association said the belief that wine drinkers will simply switch from European, South American, and Pacific nations' wines to domestically-made wines is false.

"It is a fundamental misunderstanding of wine drinkers and the wine marketplace to believe that wine is a fungible product. ... when an American wine drinker asks for Red Burgundy, they do not substitute Oregon Pinot Noir when the Burgundy is out of their price range or unavailable. They simply don't make a purchase," it said.

— Yun Li

Elon Musk on Saturday said he wants a "zero-tariff" system between the U.S. and Europe that would effectively create "a free trade zone," Bloomberg reported. 

"Both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation," Musk told Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on Saturday during a virtual event. "That's what I hope occurs."

Salvini thanked Musk for his appearance in an X post.

— Annika Kim Constantino

Economists say that Trump's tariff formula is based on an underestimation of a key metric, which has resulted in inflated tariff rates for countries nationwide.

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the formula calculating Trump's "reciprocal" tariff plan is the country's trade deficit with the U.S., divided by its exports, then divided by two.

But that formula assumes an elasticity of import prices with respect to tariffs of about 0.25, but the economists say that that number should be closer to 1.0 (0.945), according to senior fellows Kevin Corinth and Stan Veuger at the American Enterprise Institute.

If Trump's formula reflected this, no country's tariff would exceed 14% and most would be at the 10% baseline established by the administration, according to AEI.

For instance, the tariff rate for Lesotho, the country with the highest rate, was 50%. But if adjusted, it would be 13.2%.

— Erin Doherty

A group of high-profile tech and finance leaders is making a trip to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, to "talk common sense" to the president about his sweeping tariffs, several sources told veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher.

"Their million dollar donations to the inauguration is turning into billions and soon trillions in losses," Swisher said in a post on Threads, not indicating which leaders are part of the group.

She added that de facto DOGE chief and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is "in their crosshairs too." 

Trump's tariffs sent global markets into a tailspin on Thursday and Friday, wiping out $30.9 billion in net worth for Musk, $23.49 billion for Amazon's Jeff Bezos and $27.34 billion for Meta's Mark Zuckerberg — the world's three richest people  — according to Bloomberg. 

The tariffs are battering tech stocks due to the industry's heavy dependence on manufacturing, computer chips and IT services from countries like China, India and Taiwan.

— Annika Kim Constantino

Elon Musk took aim at Peter Navarro, as the top Trump trade advisor continues to defend the president's sweeping tariffs.

"The market will find a bottom. It will be soon, and from there, we're going to have a bullish boom, and the Dow is going to hit 50,000 during Trump's term," Navarro said on CNN Saturday.

"A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing," Musk wrote in a post on X, responding to a post on the social media platform by a user touting Navarro's qualifications.

Musk — whose DOGE team is engaged in a controversial effort to cut federal spending, including mass layoffs — also said that Navarro hasn't built "s--t."

The billionaire SpaceX founder, who has been an influential voice during the early days of the Trump White House, may be leaving the administration in the coming months, NBC News reported this week.

— Erin Doherty

The British maker of Jaguar and Land Rover cars is pausing shipments to the U.S. as it works to mitigate the impact of a 25% tax on vehicle imports imposed by the Trump Administration.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, one of Britain's biggest carmakers, said Saturday that the pause would take place this month.

"The USA is an important market for JLR's luxury brands," the company said in a statement. "As we work to address the new trading terms with out business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid-to-longer term plans."

The U.K. automotive industry is expected to be hit hard by the new tariffs, which come at a time when British carmakers are struggling with declining demand at home and the need to retool their plants for the transition to electric vehicles.

"The industry is already facing multiple headwinds and this announcement comes at the worst possible time," Mike Hawes, chief executive of the U.K.'s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said last week. "SMMT is in constant contact with government and will be looking for trade discussions to accelerate as we need to secure a way forward that supports jobs and economic growth on both sides of the Atlantic."

The number of cars made in the U.K. dropped 13.9% to 779,584 vehicles last year, according to the SMMT. More than 77% of those vehicles were destined for the export market.

— Reuters

Top trade aide Peter Navarro downplayed the sharp market sell-off triggered by Trump's aggressive tariff rollout, vowing stocks will rebound and flourish soon.

"The market will find a bottom. It will be soon, and from there, we're going to have a bullish boom, and the Dow is going to hit 50,000 during Trump's term," he claimed on CNN Saturday. "The S&P 500 is going to have a very broad based recovery, and wages are going to go up, profits are going to go up, and life is going to be beautiful here in America."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2,231.07 points on Friday, the biggest decline since June 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. This follows a 1,679-point decline on Thursday and marks the first time ever that it has shed more than 1,500 points on back-to-back days. The S&P 500 shed 10% in two days, now off more than 17% off its recent high.

— Yun Li

President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that China has been "hit much harder than the USA, not even close," in the escalating trade war.

"They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "We have been the dumb and helpless 'whipping post,' but not any longer."

He touted his sweeping new tariffs, saying, "We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before."

"Already, more than FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS OF INVESTMENT, and rising fast! THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won't be easy, but the end result will be historic. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!" Trump wrote. 

— Annika Kim Constantino

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks warned that Trump's decision to impose broad tariffs could ultimately hurt drug research and development in the pharmaceutical industry. 

Trump's reciprocal tariffs exempted pharmaceuticals imported to the U.S., bringing a temporary sigh of relief to drugmakers. But industry leaders are still bracing for Trump's plans to impose pharmaceutical-specific tariffs sometime soon. 

"We can't breach those agreements, so we have to eat the cost of the tariffs and make trade-offs within our own companies," Ricks told BBC in an interview on Friday. "Typically, that will be in reduction of staff or research and development, and I predict R&D will come first. That's a disappointing outcome."

Eli Lilly has led the industry in building up its U.S. production capabilities, earmarking $50 billion to construct and upgrade new plants since 2020. Those facilities are key to manufacturing the company's blockbuster weight loss and diabetes drugs. 

But Eli Lilly also depends mainly on foreign manufacturing, most notably in Ireland, where it employs more than 3,000 and is constructing a new $800 million facility. 

Ricks described the tariffs as a watershed moment in the nation's economic history. 

"I think it's a pivot in U.S. policy and it feels like it'll be hard to come back from here," he said. 

— Annika Kim Constantino

Some automakers are trying to capitalize on the moment amid the tariffs, industry analysts told CNBC. Ford and Stellantis are offering employee-pricing programs, while Hyundai Motor said it would not raise prices for at least two months to ease consumer concerns.

Automakers view the actions as a way to get vehicles off their lots and maintain or increase sales amid uncertain market conditions due to the tariffs.

"We understand that these are uncertain times for many Americans. Whether it's navigating the complexities of a changing economy or simply needing a reliable vehicle for your family, we want to help," Ford said in a statement Thursday morning announcing the program. "We have the retail inventory to do this and a lot of choice for customers that need a vehicle."

— Michael Wayland

China's Foreign Ministry on Saturday said "the market has spoken" following the U.S. imposition of sweeping new tariffs and called for the White House to defuse the escalating trade war through "equal-footed consultation."

U.S. stock markets fell sharply for a second consecutive day on Friday, with all three major indexes dropping by more than 5% as part of a global rout.

Sharing a picture of Friday's U.S. stock market downturn, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, "the trade and tariff war started by the U.S. against the world is unprovoked and unjustified."

— Sam Meredith

With one of the nastiest two-day selloffs in history following President Donald Trump's launch of punitive tariffs on most trading partners, the stock market is in one of those precarious spots: Both tightly coiled for a near-term bounce soon, but not quite priced for the full fundamental implications of this policy as now contemplated.

Bespoke Investment Group gave voice to this uncomfortable moment, in which markets that are built to produce the "wisdom of crowds" through rational, collective price-setting are lashed to the whims a president channeling decades' worth of anti-trade feelings through the executive power to declare "emergency" tariffs.

— Michael Santoli

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit the White House on Monday to discuss recently announced tariffs with Trump, three Israeli officials and a White House official said on Saturday.

The impromptu in-person visit could mark the first by a foreign leader to meet with Trump and try to negotiate a deal to remove tariffs.

Netanyahu's office has not confirmed the visit, that would likely also include discussions on Iran and Israel's war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. The visit was first reported by Axios.

The surprise invite by Trump came in a phone call on Thursday with Netanyahu, who is presently on a visit to Hungary, when the Israeli leader raised the tariff issue, according to the Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

As part of a sweeping new tariff policy announced by Trump, unspecified Israeli goods exports to the United States face a 17% tariff. The U.S. is Israel's closest ally and largest single trading partner.

An Israeli finance ministry official said on Thursday that Trump's latest tariff announcement could impact Israel's exports of machinery and medical equipment.

Israel had already moved to cancel its remaining tariffs on U.S. imports on Tuesday. The two countries signed a free trade agreement 40 years ago and about 98% of goods from the U.S. are now tax-free.

— Reuters

Before Wednesday, President Donald Trump's tariffs were expected to be a problem for markets and the economy, but a manageable one. What actually emerged, though, has been economic and geopolitical mayhem.

It started with Trump's Rose Garden news conference Wednesday after the market close, when the president slapped 10% tariffs on every U.S. trading partner starting Saturday, with individualized rates for 60 other countries that would begin in a week. Virtually overnight, the effective U.S. tariff rate was set to spring from 2.5% to well past 20%.

China retaliated with 34% tariffs on all goods, European Union leaders also are considering countermeasures.

Markets recoiled at the developments, sending stocks into a vicious two-day sell-off that put the Nasdaq Composite, home to powerhouse Silicon Valley names that Trump has been courting in the early days of his second term, into a bear market.

— Jeff Cox

President Donald Trump's tariff plan sent shockwaves throughout global markets, leaving investors reeling and economists scratching their heads. Click here to read CNBC's Friday coverage.

— Terri Cullen