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President Donald Trump downplayed a sharp market selloff spurred by worries that his tariff agenda will drag the world’s largest economy into a downturn, saying he did not foresee the US going into a recession.
“I don’t see it at all. I think this country’s going to boom,” Trump said Tuesday at the White House.
Trump added that markets “are going to go up and they’re going to go down. But you know what, we have to rebuild our country.”
Trump’s comments come amid a three-week stretch of market volatility. Stocks fell earlier Tuesday after the president offered fresh tariff threats against Canada, the largest US trading partner. That action saw the S&P 500 Index selloff hit 10% off its February high before buyers moved in to stem the rout. Trump later indicated he would ease off previously announced 50% steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada, which helped further pare losses, though the S&P was still down on the day.
The sharp declines in recent weeks have followed warnings from the president and administration officials that the US economy may be in for a difficult stretch as they use tariffs to rebalance trade flows and pursue sharp cuts to the federal government’s spending and workforce. Trump in an interview that aired on Fox News on Sunday had declined to rule out the possibility of a recession.
Trump, who has long looked to the markets as vindication for his economic policies, in recent weeks has downplayed that metric — a stance he repeated on Tuesday.
“Nope, doesn’t concern me,” Trump said when asked about the market volatility. “I think some people are going to make great deals by buying stocks and bonds and all the things they’re buying. I think we’re going to have an economy that’s a real economy, not a fake economy.”
Trump spoke alongside billionaire adviser Elon Musk, as he purchased one of the tech entrepreneur’s Tesla Inc. vehicles, an effort to boost an ally after the company’s stock plunged on Monday.
Musk is leading Trump’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency effort that has rattled Washington with its moves to slash the federal government — an initiative that the president and his allies say will bring growth to the private sector.
