Imagine It’s a manic Monday on Wall Street; traders are already sweating through their overpriced suits, and then a single tweet from an X account called Walter Bloomberg drops like a financial bombshell.
The post? A juicy tidbit claimed President Trump was mulling a 90-day timeout on his tariff plan for all countries except China. Cue the chaos: the Dow Jones does a rollercoaster impression, soaring sky-high before plummeting back to earth faster than you can say “fake news.”
The whole thing was a wild-goose chase sparked by a comedy of errors. Let’s unpack this glorious mess.
The tweet in question came from Walter Bloomberg, an X account that’s not tied to Bloomberg News (no relation, despite the name) but has built a rep as a go-to for snappy business and tech updates.
It’s the kind of account that doesn’t write its own stuff, just parrots headlines straight from the Bloomberg Terminal, a fancy, subscription-only toy for finance pros who need market data faster than Usain Bolt running the 100-meter.
The Terminal spits out breaking news from big dogs like CNBC and Reuters, often before the stories even hit the web. So, naturally, Walter Bloomberg’s 300,000-plus followers treat it like gospel.
On April 7, 2025
The account tweeted: “HASSETT: TRUMP IS CONSIDERING A 90-DAY PAUSE IN TARIFFS FOR ALL COUNTRIES EXCEPT CHINA.” Sounds legit, right? Wrong.
The White House swooped in like a superhero with a fact-check cape, quote-tweeting the now-deleted post to say, “Nope, not happening.”
They even tossed in a Fox News clip to prove it. In the footage, Kevin Hassett, Trump’s National Economic Council director, gets grilled by an anchor about a tariff pause after billionaire Bill Ackman begged for one on X.
Hassett’s response? A diplomatic shrug: “The president’s gonna do what the president’s gonna do. Chill out, Bill.” Hardly a smoking gun.
So where did this train wreck start?
Walter Bloomberg, when pressed on X, pointed the finger at Reuters. Reuters, in turn, threw CNBC under the bus, admitting they’d cribbed the headline from them before the White House debunked it.
Reuters issued a mea culpa to TechCrunch: “We goofed, pulled the story, and we’re sorry.” CNBC, meanwhile, told TechCrunch they’d aired “unconfirmed info” in a banner during the market madness and corrected it on air ASAP.
Walter Bloomberg’s reaction? A rare, human-like “wtf” followed by a screenshot of the Terminal’s flip-flop from CNBC. It’s like a game of hot potato, but with financial headlines and zero accountability.
The real kicker? Wall Street traders likely saw this on the Terminal itself, not X. But for the rest of us mere mortals, accounts like Walter Bloomberg are the next best thing to a $30,000-a-year Terminal subscription.
When the tweet hit, index funds went haywire, proving that even a whiff of tariff news can turn the market into a jittery mess. The volatility wasn’t just your average Monday wobble; it was a full-on tantrum, all thanks to a daisy chain of sloppy reporting.
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