Viral X Post Falsely Claiming Trump May Back Down on Tariffs Sends Markets on Wild Rollercoaster Ride
A fake news flash from a viral X account reporting that President Donald Trump was considering a 90-day pause in tariffs set off a violent market rally Monday morning — only for it all to unravel minutes later after the White House was denied the claim.
The frenzy began sometime after an account on X called “Walter Bloomberg” amplified the claim in a post at 10:13 a.m. (ET). The account boasts over 844K followers but appears to be unaffiliated with any news outlet, although it mimics the style of financial wire services.
The now-deleted post read:
HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA.
It’s unclear whether Walter Bloomberg tweeted the post first, an account called Hammer Capitol pushed the claim first on X, but the headline — purportedly citing White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett — went viral and sparked others to share the false claim widely.
At 10:15 a.m. the false story was cited on CNBC live on-air.
Hosts admitted they were trying to verify the story but the news on a network watched by Wall Street’s biggest players immediately sent markets reeling from tariffs panic into a euphoric spike. Stocks surged as much as 8% in seconds, only to crash 3.5% moments later when the White House scrambled to CNBC to call the report what it was: “Fake news.”
Hassett himself had appeared on Fox & Friends earlier Monday, but never said anything close to the viral claim.
When co-host Brian Kilmeade asked whether Trump might consider a 90-day tariff pause, Hassett hedged: “I think the president is gonna decide what the president is going to decide… even if you think there will be some negative effect from the trade side, that’s still a small share of GDP.”
That wasn’t enough to calm markets already skidding into bear territory.
Indeed, Monday continued a brutal three-day sell-off, with the S&P 500 down 4% on the day, and nearly 13% since Thursday—its steepest drop since the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow plunged 1,363 points, following two consecutive 1,500-point collapses. The NASDAQ shed another 4%, bringing its losses from recent highs to 26%.
