Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dismissed all forecasts of a recession, saying he “would never bet” on it.
President Donald Trump delayed tariffs against Mexico and Canada for a second time this week, pledging they will now begin on Apr 2. These tariffs are likely to result in “a little disturbance” as Trump has said, but Lutnick put an end to rumors that they could lead to a recession.
“Anybody who bets against Donald Trump — it’s like the same people who thought Donald Trump wasn’t a winner a year ago. Donald Trump is a winner. He’s going to win for the American people. That’s just the way it’s going to be. There’s going to be no recession in America,” Lutnick said on NBC News’s Meet the Press Sunday. “You’re going to see over the next two years the greatest set of growth coming from America. You saw it, 1.3 trillion of new investment coming into America. Think of all those jobs. And remember, each trillion of investment in America, is 1% of growth GDP. So, Donald Trump is bringing growth to America. I would never bet on recession. No chance.”
Lutnick explained that these “global tariffs” are negotiating tactics to bring tariffs on American goods down. The commerce secretary previously claimed the U.S. has the upper hand in tariffs against China because the U.S. buys more of its products than the Chinese buy American.
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Mexico is facing a 25% tariff and China is facing a 10% tariff that began Tuesday. This comes amid a yearslong border crisis that included immigrants illegally crossing the border and an increase of Chinese-produced fentanyl discovered among states sharing borders with Mexico. Lutnick predicted that as long as fentanyl was no longer a problem for the U.S., the tariffs would go away.
According to an estimate by the nonpartisan think tank Tax Foundation, Trump’s latest tariffs could raise taxes by more than $1 trillion between 2025 and 2034 should they continue that long. As Schmitt pointed out, these tariffs are largely negotiating tactics with the countries, which have since announced retaliatory tariffs.
