Warren Buffett shot down a wild claim boosted by Donald Trump that he had praised the president for “purposely crashing” the stock market.”
Trump on Friday posted a TikTok video to Truth Social arguing that he had an ulterior motive for driving the stock market downward with his universal tariffs.
“Trump is crashing the stock market by 20 percent this month, but he’s doing it on purpose,” the video’s narrator says. “And this is why Warren Buffett just said that Trump is making the best economic moves he’s seen in over 50 years.”
The video goes on to hypothesize that Trump is intentionally tanking the market as a long-term strategic play to lower interest and mortgage rates.
Now, Buffet, 94, has broken his silence to make it very clear that he said nothing of the sort.
The legendary investor’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, issued a statement on Friday saying, “There are reports currently circulating on social media (including Twitter, Facebook and Tik Tok) regarding comments allegedly made by Warren E. Buffett. All such reports are false.”
Later on Friday, the legendary investor told CNBC personally that the statement was intended to repudiate the misinformation quickly before it could spread even further. He said that he won’t be commenting publicly on the markets or economy until Berkshire’s annual meeting on May 3.
While Buffett has not given a take on the sweeping tariffs Trump announced this week, which have sent the stock market plummeting, he described the president’s earlier tariffs on Canada and Mexico as “an act of war” in early March.
“Over time, they’re a tax on goods,” he said. “I mean, the tooth fairy doesn’t pay them. And then what? You always have to ask that question in economics. And then what?”
The video Trump shared appears to use an audio track from a clip posted by Brian Decker, a social media financial commentator, in mid-March, well before the president’s universal tariffs.
Trump’s tariffs, which set a baseline 10 percent import tax on all goods and higher rates for many trading partners, have sent the market careening downward. The S&P 500, an indicator for the market’s overall performance, has plunged more than 10 percent over the two days since the tariffs were announced.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
