Trump won’t predict whether US will face 2025 recession, talks tariffs in interview
Published 9 March 2025
WASHINGTON – Amid looming trade wars, rising inflation and stock market volatility, President Donald Trump wouldn't say in an interview released Sunday whether the United States could face a recession this year.
Asked on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures" about the possibility – which has sparked some fears since last week, when the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta posted preliminary economic data showing negative growth – Trump said, "I hate to predict things like that."
"There is a period of transition," he told Fox host Maria Bartiromo, "because what we’re doing is very big."
On Thursday, the president agreed to a one-month tariff delay for some goods, providing a temporary reprieve from his vow to impose sweeping tariffs of 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada.
The tariffs briefly took effect last week before Trump backpedaled, pausing some until April 2. He initially granted a request Wednesday from the three largest automobile manufacturers in the U.S. to exempt their cars from the measures.
Despite the tariff pause on certain goods, the stock market tumbled last week. Responding to the volatility in Sunday's interview on Fox, Trump told Americans, "You can’t really watch the stock market."
He also suggested he may raise tariffs after they go into effect April 2.