President Donald Trump on Sunday would not rule out the possibility of Americans feeling economic hardships including a recession resulting from his efforts to provoke a trade war with Canada, Mexico and other nations.
He sat down for an interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo as his administration deals with backlash from both sides of the aisle and some business owners after another week of blustery threats about trade measures and his decision to relieve Canada of some planned tariff measures until at least April.
The Fox host asked Trump bluntly if he agreed with a prediction of impending recession made by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the US president hedged his answer.
“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big,” said Trump. “There are always periods of- it takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I think it should be great for us.”
President Trump took the US and its neighbors through a dizzying week of tariff announcements which at the end looked to be a jumbled mess. The US slapped on blanket 25% tariffs against Mexican and Canadian imports at the beginning of the week, before relaxing them and granting a 30-day reprieve for goods that comply with the USMCA agreement. Meanwhile, the administration doubled tariffs against China to 20%, having implemented 10% duties just last month.
In response, China’s foreign ministry wrote on Twitter that the country will fight the US “to the bitter end” if America “persists in waging a tariff war, a trade war, or any other kind of war”.
The US stock market has now erased all of its gains since the November election as businesses deal with the chaos and uncertainty of tariff measures which seem to be changing on a day-by-day basis.
Others in the Trump administration including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are more bullish about the US economy bouncing back from the immediate uncertainty brought on by Trump’s rapidly-changing policies.
“There’s going to be no recession in America,” Lutnick said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
Canadian officials seem on course to continue with export tariffs on goods — including electricity — to America, and an incensed Ontario premier Doug Ford and other local leaders are pushing businesses across several provinces to remove US-made goods from store shelves and label products made in Canada to encourage purchases of domestic goods.
Trump and Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, engaged in an explosive call this week which reportedly included “profanity” as both countries prepared for economic warfare.
A day earlier, the Canadian PM had publicly denounced the US effort as “dumb” at a press conference.
“It’s not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal, but Donald, they point out that even though you are a very smart guy, this a very dumb thing to do,” Trudeau said on Tuesday, referring to an editorial in the conservative US paper accusing Trump of taking the “Dumbest Tariff Plunge.”
“We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see,” he continued.
