President Trump’s top aides raced to defend his expansive global tariffs on Sunday, downplaying the prospect that his new taxes on imports could cause a significant spike in prices or tip the U.S. economy into a painful recession.
As Mr. Trump departed Mar-a-Lago for another day of golfing at his club in Jupiter, Fla., his leading economic advisers dismissed the turmoil they have unleashed in financial markets around the world, insisting that the president’s trade war would ultimately improve the nation’s economic fortunes.
But they also sent another round of mixed signals over the extent to which Mr. Trump sees tariffs as a negotiating tool, even as many of his aides touted anew on Sunday that they had heard from foreign nations seeking to strike a deal.
“The tariffs are coming. Of course they are,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Mr. Trump’s 10 percent base-line tariff on nearly every trading partners went into effect on Saturday morning. Another round of tariffs that aim to punish countries that run trade deficits with the United States will snap into place on Wednesday morning.
Kevin Hassett, the head of the White House National Economic Council, said that he did not expect to “see a big effect on the consumer in the U.S.,” even as he acknowledged in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that prices “might go up some” as a result of the tariffs.
