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President Donald Trump said the U.S. economy faces "a period of transition," deflecting concerns about the risks of a U.S. slowdown as his early focus on tariffs and federal job cuts cause market turmoil.
Asked on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures whether he's expecting a recession this year, Trump said, "I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we're doing is very big."
While declining to address the question, Trump's response broadly aligns with his speech to Congress last week and a flurry of recent comments from top administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. At the core of the Trump team's argument is the prospect of tax cuts and tariff revenue down the road that officials contend will spur the economy.
Trump's on-again, off-again tariff policies have rattled investors, triggering a selloff in technology shares and levels of volatility not seen in years. Bessent said Friday on CNBC that the U.S. economy needs "detox" to wean it off dependence on public spending and bond traders are signaling an increasing risk that the US economy will stall.
Trump set the tone on March 4 in his address to a joint session of Congress, acknowledging there may be an "adjustment period" as tariffs take effect. "There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that," he said in his speech. "It won't be much."
Last week brought the deepest stock market rout since Trump was reelected four months ago.
Trump dismissed the idea on March 6 that his latest reversal on tariffs against Mexico and Canada had any influence on investors, saying "I'm not even looking at the stock market" and blaming "globalists who see how rich our country is going to be and they don't like it."
The U.S. stock market has fallen more than 6% since peaking on Feb. 19. Investors have faced seven straight days in which the S&P 500 Index swung at least 1% during the trading session and tech shares such as Nvidia Corp. and Tesla Inc., which led the market higher over the past three months, have taken a beating.
In his Sunday Morning Futures interview, recorded late last week, Trump defended his approach.
"We're bringing wealth back to America," he said. "That's a big thing."