Trump’s recent comments have done little to quell consumer confidence amid inflation worries and looming tariffs.
Zachary SchermeleWASHINGTON – Amid looming trade wars, rising inflation and stock market volatility, President Donald Trump wouldn’t say in an interview released Sunday whether the United States could face a recession this year.
Asked on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” about the possibility – which has sparked some fears since last week, when the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta posted preliminary economic data showing negative growth – Trump said, “I hate to predict things like that.”
“There is a period of transition,” he told Fox host Maria Bartiromo, “because what we’re doing is very big.”
On Thursday, the president agreed to a one-month tariff delay for some goods, providing a temporary reprieve from his vow to impose sweeping tariffs of 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada.
The tariffs briefly took effect last week before Trump backpedaled, pausing some until April 2. He initially granted a request Wednesday from the three largest automobile manufacturers in the U.S. to exempt their cars from the measures.
Despite the tariff pause on certain goods, the stock market tumbled last week. Responding to the volatility in Sunday’s interview on Fox, Trump told Americans, “You can’t really watch the stock market.”
He also suggested he may raise tariffs after they go into effect April 2.
“We may go up with some tariffs,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll go down, but we’ll go up.”
Trump has warned Americans in recent weeks to get ready for a “little disturbance” from looming trade wars. All sorts of products, especially groceries, could be affected by the tariff orders.
Tariffs are taxes on foreign goods shipments to the U.S., paid by domestic manufacturers or retailers and typically passed along to consumers. However, Trump and his top allies have argued the tariffs could spur manufacturing in the U.S., or make products made in the U.S. more competitive.
Unlike the president, one of his top deputies was willing to weigh in Sunday on the likelihood of a recession hitting the country. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “there’s going to be no recession in America.”
“If Donald Trump is bringing growth to America, I would never bet on recession, no chance,” he said.
Contributing: Paul Davidson
