President Donald Trump brushed aside concerns about a possible economic recession, telling NBC News in an interview set to air Sunday that while “anything can happen,” he thought the economy was strong.
When pressed by “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker on whether he is worried that a recession could happen in the short term, Trump first said “no,” before he left the door open to the possibility and added his own outlook.
“Anything can happen,” he said, according to an excerpt released by NBC News. “But I think we’re going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think we’re going have the greatest economic boom in history.”
Trump’s comments come as his economic policies, particularly his growing trade war with most other countries, has triggered a realignment of the international order and significant market swings.
The U.S. gross domestic product, a sum of all goods and services, dropped 0.3 percent in this year’s first quarter — before Trump’s tariff announcements on “Liberation Day” in early April — the first quarter of negative growth since 2022.
He has since paused higher tariffs on most countries for 90 days as negotiations play out, while hiking tariffs on China to over 100 percent.
Trump has sought to place the blame at the feet of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, arguing that the volatility of the stock market was caused by Biden, and not his own aggressive tariff stance. “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,’’ Trump posted on Truth Social.
During a Cabinet meeting this week, Trump continued the blame game after the Commerce Department released poor first-quarter GDP numbers. “This is Biden,” he said.
In the NBC News interview, he dismissed concerns over a looming recession when asked by Welker whether it is okay to have a recession in the short term. “Look, yeah, it’s everything’s okay,” he said.
“This is a transition period. I think we’re going to do fantastically.”
