On Wednesday, April 9, President Trump informed the world of his hugely important and impactful decision to pause reciprocal tariffs. He did so by posting on his social media site, Truth Social.  Rather than announce the decision through official government channels, he tipped off a limited audience comprised almost entirely of his supporters. This is patently wrong.

Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs set off a huge downturn in the stock market.

Most of you know the back story. On Wednesday, April 2, President Trump signed a far-reaching Executive Order to implement “Reciprocal Tariffs.”  On Thursday, the stock market dropped dramatically (including Dow Jones Industrial, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and other indexes).  The crash continued on Friday.  On Monday, April 7, the market initially rebounded based on a rumor the President was considering a 90-day pause in the tariffs.  But when the White House shut this rumor down, the market continued to plummet. And, again on Tuesday (April 8), the market continued to fall. 

Trump made three critical posts on Truth Social on April 9, including a 90-day pause in reciprocal tariffs.

At 9:33 am Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 9^th, Trump posted on Truth Social, a social media platform he founded and controls: 

“Be COOL. Everything is going to work out well.”

Just 4 minutes later, at 9:37 am, he posted again: 

“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT”  (DJT, importantly, is the ticker name for his Truth Social stock). 

Then, less than 4 hours later, at 1:18 pm, he posted again to announce a 90-day pause in the tariffs for all countries but China. He noted 75 countries had contacted the Administration seeking to negotiate, and none of them had taken retaliatory action. His post concluded,

“I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Trump’s Truth Social post was the exclusive means of announcing the pause, and no other official government channels were used to communicate this hugely consequential decision.

I combed all Presidential and White House official communications prior to and immediately after 1:18 pm and found nothing official informing the public regarding the pause in the tariffs. As far as I can tell, Trump’s post on Truth Social was the only contemporaneous announcement regarding the pause in tariffs.

Commencing at precisely 1:15 pm (13:15 in 24-hour time) all of the major stock indexes (Dow Jones, SP 500, Nasdaq, etc.) began to climb dramatically.  Below I display the Dow Jones Industrial average for April 9, beginning at 10 am.  At 13:15 pm it was at 38,001; two minutes later, at 13:17, it was at 39,212; and by 13:25 pm it was at 40,086. The index shot up over 2,000 points in just 10 minutes.

By closing time, 4:00 pm, many records were broken.  Here’s how CNBC described it:

“The S&P 500 skyrocketed 9.52% to settle at 5,456.90 for its biggest one-day gain since 2008. For the broad market index, it was the third-biggest gain in post-WWII history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2,962.86 points, or 7.87%, to close at 40,608.45 for its biggest percentage advance since March 2020. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 12.16% to end at 17,124.97, notching its largest one-day jump since January 2001 and second-best day ever.“

By not immediately informing all Americans of his critical decision via official government channels, and instead exclusively relying on Truth Social, President Trump gave himself, his company, and his supporters a huge unfair advantage.

Truth Social is social media website owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), an American company majority-owned by Donald Trump.  As of January 2025, Truth Social has 6.3 million active users. The person most followed on Truth Social is Donald Trump, with 8.6 million followers. 

As you can see from the graph below, Truth Social is the social media site most trusted by Republicans, and least trusted by Democrats.  In fact, 77% of Democrats say they’d never use the platform.   

Trump Media stock, whose ticker is a nod to the president’s initials (DJT), surged nearly 22% on April 9 (Wednesday).  With his 53% ownership stake in the company, now in a trust controlled by son Donald Trump Jr., the trust made $415 million on the day.

In a video posted by one of his aides, here’s how Trump bragged about how much money he made a couple of his billionaire friends attending a White House event:

“He made $2.5 million today, and he made $900 million! That’s not bad,”

Trump said, pointing to his wealthy friends Charles Schwab and Roger Penske, respectively.

Regardless of whether Trump broke any laws in using Truth Social to announce a critically important decision, he disadvantaged the vast majority of Americans in doing so.

Every American, regardless of political persuasion, should be treated the same when it comes to information on critical decisions and actions of the President. Leaders who attempt to advantage their supporters and disadvantage their detractors should be rebuked.  By exclusively using Truth Social, President Trump disregarded the vast majority of Americans who don’t use that platform. Americans must be able to rely on their government to keep them informed of important decisions. Instead, President Trump enriched his company–a nongovernmental entity–in conveying critical governmental action that should have been conveyed through official channels.