WHAT'S THE LINE?

Trump Aide Confidently Contradicts Prez With Recession Promise

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said there would be “no recession in America.”

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick declared that there will be no recession this year—the same morning that President Donald Trump appeared to suggest otherwise.

“There’s going to be no recession in America,” Lutnick said on NBC News’s Meet the Press Sunday. “What there’s going to be is global tariffs are going to come down.”

“We’ll unleash America out to the world,” he added.

But as Lutnick called Trump a “winner” and claimed that the economy would boom, the president conceded there may be a “period of transition” brought on by his economic policies moments before on Fox News.

“I hate to predict things,” Trump said on Futures With Maria Bartiromo. “There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of—it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”

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On NBC, Lutnick said the Trump administration’s economic strategy would beat warnings by major banks, including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, which had warned that tariffs would cause volatility in global markets. Stocks plummeted after Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on Tuesday. The next day, Trump said he would delay tariffs on cars coming from the two countries for a month.

NBC host Kristen Welker asked Lutnick about the effect that Trump’s tariffs would have on consumer prices.

“The CEOs of Target and Best Buy this week warned that they will have to increase prices as a result of tariffs,” she said. “Do you acknowledge that prices will go up for consumers because of these tariffs?”

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“I think it’s important for people to realize that we run $2 trillion deficits, and Donald Trump is going to try to balance the budget of the United States of America,” Lutnick replied.

“You know who’s going to pay for that?” the commerce secretary continued. “Tariffs and outside countries who just leech off of us, lean on us, earn money off of us—they’ve got to start to pay.”

Lutnick noted that, in the meantime, consumers may feel economic pain.

“President Trump wants the American people to start to understand the external revenue service should start to pay,” he said. “Yes, some products that are made foreign might be more expensive, but American products will get cheaper, and that’s the point.”

He also said that Trump’s plans to impose sweeping 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum would go ahead on Wednesday.

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Maurício AlencarFreelance Reporter

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