WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump sought to downplay Thursday the devastating effects of a market sell-off prompted by his imposition of reciprocal tariffs on nations worldwide, maintaining the sharp downturn "is expected."

"The patient was very sick. The economy had a lot of problems," Trump told reporters on Air Force One. "It was a sick patient. It went through an operation. It’s going to be a booming economy. It’s going to be amazing. We’re going to have trillions coming in.”

The president claimed that many manufacturing plants are being built in the US and said "you'll see a lot of construction jobs."

The tariffs, Trump said, are "going to make our county very rich.”

US markets closed Thursday with their largest losses since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the global economy to a grinding halt as nations around the world imposed lockdowns and travel restrictions in a bid to curtail the virus' spread.

Reciprocal tariffs ranging from 10% to 50% were imposed on products the US imports from many of its trading partners.

The European Union received import duties of 20%, China 34%, Vietnam 46%, Taiwan 32%, Japan 24%, India 26%, South Korea 25%, Thailand 36%, Switzerland 31%, Indonesia 32%, Malaysia 24%, Cambodia 49%, South Africa 30%, Bangladesh 30% and Israel 17%.

Tech companies' stock prices fell sharply, with Apple's shares down more than 9% due to supply chain disruption worries. More US tariffs were imposed on China, the country that supplies essential iPhone components, increasing the overall rate to 54%.

Similar worries caused chip stocks to also plummet, with Nvidia down more than 7%. The market capitalization of the so-called "Magnificent Seven" stocks dropped more than $900 billion.

Trump said that following his announcement, "every country is calling us."

"That’s the beauty of what we do. We put ourselves in the driver’s seat. If we would have asked these countries to do us a favor, they would have said no. Now they will do anything for us," he said.