Leaders of American companies big and small have started to prepare for what could be a lean 2025.

Building on Monday’s sell-off, all three major indices shed value Tuesday, but Wednesday saw the market attempt to rebound with swings in either direction.

President Donald Trump said the stock market does not concern him and that his predecessor was to blame for turbulence on Wall Street, not his own tariff policies that executives said caused an unsettling amount of uncertainty.

“I think the market was going to go very, very bad,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.

Delta Air Lines just cut its earnings forecast for the year by half. In a securities filing Monday, the company blamed the slowdown on a “recent reduction in consumer and corporate confidence caused by increased macro uncertainty.”

Kohl’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods have also released muted outlooks as Trump’s tariff policies threatened to destabilize the price of goods.

“What’s going to happen from a tariff standpoint? You know, if tariffs are put in place and prices rise the way that they might, what’s going to happen with the consumer?” Dick’s executive chairman Ed Stack told CNBC.

In Pflugerville, Texas, James Barbee, who is the owner of Barbee Automotive, said tariffs will bring on a tough transition for his business.

“The price of parts is going to rise, so that affects our profit margin,” Barbee told CBS Austin.

Some of the president’s allies have suggested the economic pain is necessary to shore up American manufacturing.

“I know a car manufacturer, an automobile dealer called me and he says, ‘Hey, two of my best-selling models are made in Canada.’ I said, ‘Who made that decision?’ Who made, you know? I said maybe the car manufacturer’s gonna pay for that,” said Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga.

The entire economy could pay if a trade war erupts. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Moody’s all just increased their probabilities of a recession, though all are still less than 50%.

White House officials have started echoing Trump’s message that the country will experience some “disturbance.” The latest was Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins Tuesday morning.

“He’s been very clear, it’s gonna be a little bit bumpy for a you know, maybe a few weeks for a few months but at the end, his vision and again, what we’re effectuating is that our American farmers and ranchers, but truly all Americans will be moving into an era of greater prosperity, we call it the golden age here at the White House,” Rollins said.

Have a news tip? Contact Ahtra Elnashar at aelnashar@sbgtv.com.