WASHINGTON (TNND) — Wall Street saw a brutal start to the week with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending Monday's trading session down 2.08%, the S&P 500 down 2.68% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite shedding a whopping 4%, marking its worst day since 2022. The sell-off came on the heels of President Donald Trump not ruling out a recession while he imposes sweeping tariffs on America's trading partners.

“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big," Trump told Fox Business when asked if he is expecting a recession this year.

Last week, Trump imposed and delayed tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods under certain conditions. All are expected to resume in April, when Trump also plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners across the globe. The strategy has executives of American companies of all sizes, from Target to micro breweries, bracing customers for price increases.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged the inflationary pressure that comes with tariffs.

“Yes, some products that are made foreign might be more expensive but American products will get cheaper," Lutnick said.

According to a Commerce Department study released earlier this year, "about half of what Americans purchased in 2023 was 'made in America.'"

The anticipated disruption has pushed some Republicans, like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to break with the White House.

“Almost every industry in Kentucky’s come to me and said it will hurt our industry and push up prices of homes, cars," Paul said.

Critics of the North American Free Trade Agreement, like United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, said they're happy to see some tariffs, even if the rollout has been chaotic.

“We are in a triage situation. Tariffs are an attempt to stop the bleeding from the hemorrhaging of jobs in America for the last 33 years," Fain said.

However, job creation hasn't been the objective of the tariffs to come out of the White House so far. Instead, Trump has tried to use them as leverage to get Canada, Mexico and China to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

In 2024, just 0.2% of fentanyl seizures at U.S. borders came through Canada, according to government data.

During his victory speech Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister designate Mark Carney said he's sticking with his government's current retaliatory tariffs "until the Americans show us respect."

“I know that these are dark days, dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust. We are getting over the shock but let us never forget the lessons. We have to look after ourselves and we have to look out for each other. We need to pull together in the tough days ahead," Carney said.