Washington, Mar 9 (V7N) – Amid growing concerns about trade wars, rising inflation, and stock market volatility, President Donald Trump refrained from predicting whether the U.S. could face a recession this year. In an interview on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures, Trump told host Maria Bartiromo, "I hate to predict things like that," in response to questions about a potential downturn.

The possibility of a recession gained attention after the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta released preliminary economic data showing negative growth last week. Despite these concerns, Trump emphasized the ongoing "period of transition" in the economy, calling the measures he’s implementing “very big.”

On Thursday, Trump agreed to delay tariffs on certain goods from Mexico and Canada for a month, temporarily halting his threat to impose a 25% tariff on imports from both countries. This followed a request from the largest U.S. automobile manufacturers to exempt their vehicles from the tariffs.

However, despite the tariff pause, the stock market experienced a downturn last week. Trump responded to the market's volatility by advising Americans, "You can’t really watch the stock market," and hinted at the possibility of raising tariffs once they go into effect on April 2.

"We may go up with some tariffs," Trump said, adding that he didn’t expect tariffs to decrease. He continued to caution that Americans should be prepared for a "little disturbance" as trade tensions grow.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, was more optimistic, stating, "There's going to be no recession in America," and expressing confidence in the economic growth driven by Trump's policies.

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