Suspicion is rising that Trump and his aides are manipulating stocks via tariff announcements. Is that even possible?

President Donald Trump is defying projections of an economic recession, plowing forward with new tariffs and, in the process, abandoning one of the core economic measuring sticks of his first term in office: the stock market.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt fielded questions about the ongoing stock market decline, saying the U.S. was in a “period of economic transition.”