Trump won't back down from tariffs despite market crash: Axios
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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed any suggestion that the administration was open to revising the approach.
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Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)
Axios reported on Sunday that senior officials in the Trump administration showed no intention of backing down from the president's sweeping new tariff plan, even after global markets suffered massive losses. Investors saw over $6 trillion wiped out on Thursday and Friday alone, raising alarm that Monday could bring even greater turmoil unless the administration steps in to ease trade tensions.
Despite those warnings, Trump's economic team appeared across major Sunday talk shows to reaffirm that the tariff policy will move forward as planned. There will be no delays, no last-minute adjustments, and certainly no reversals.
"The tariffs are coming. He announced it, and he wasn't kidding. The tariffs are coming, of course they are," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on CBS's Face the Nation.
Meanwhile, on NBC's Meet the Press, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed any suggestion that the administration was open to revising the approach: "No. No, no, no. I think that we are going to have to see the path forward. Because, you know, after 20, 30, 40, 50 years of bad behavior, you can't just wipe the slate clean."
Read more: Saudi market plunges nearly 7% after US tariffs shake investors
Their remarks come as concern deepens among major investors, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who warned that Monday could bring severe market repercussions if Trump doesn't act swiftly to ease tensions. Yet officials appeared unified in brushing off those fears, suggesting that average Americans are less troubled by Wall Street fluctuations than the media might claim.
"Americans who want to retire right now, Americans who have put away for years in their savings accounts, I—I think they don't look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what's happening," Bessent argued.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett also pushed back against the idea that the administration's strategy was contributing to market chaos. "It is not a strategy for the markets to crash. It's a strategy to create a golden age for the American worker," he told ABC's This Week.
While economists warn that the tariffs could lead to inflation, slower growth, and a potential recession in the United States and globally, Lutnick framed the policy as a long-overdue course correction. "There is no postponing," he said. "The president needs to reset global trade."
Read more: WTO Chief warns of global trade contraction as US tariffs spark alarm
On Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Trump's new tariffs are likely to trigger a sharp rise in inflation and weaken US economic growth.
"It is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected," Powell said in a speech delivered in Virginia. "The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth." He added that it remains "too soon" for the Federal Reserve to adjust its current monetary policy.
