President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor stood firm against critics of the White House’s tariff plan, claiming the “exaggerated” reaction ignores how it will ultimately benefit gross domestic product (GDP).
“I think that the president is going to decide what the president’s going to decide. There are more than 50 countries in negotiation with the president,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on “Fox & Friends” Monday.
“But I would urge everyone, especially Bill [Ackman], to ease off the rhetoric a little bit,” he continued. “It’s the idea that it’s going to be a ‘nuclear winter’ or something like that is completely irresponsible rhetoric.”
Stocks fell on Monday after briefly turning positive as President Trump defended his tariffs on key trading partners.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 800 points, or 2.2%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were down 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively.
Stocks are continuing their rout from last week, when the Dow plunged 2,231.07 points, or 5.5%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 5.97% and 5.82%, respectively, at the closing bell on Friday. The Nasdaq entered into bear market territory on Friday.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman called for a 90-day “time-out” on Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, warning of the United States bringing forth a “self-induced, economic nuclear winter.”
In a lengthy X post on Sunday, the founder of Pershing Square hedge fund management argued that the U.S. “is 100% behind the president on fixing a global system of tariffs that has disadvantaged the country,” but stressed that business “is a confidence game and confidence depends on trust.”
His rant continued: “The president has an opportunity to call a 90-day time out, negotiate and resolve unfair asymmetric tariff deals… we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down.”
“The fact is that a 10% baseline tariff is on about 14% of GDP. That’s about how much trade we have, how many imports. And so 86% of the GDP is affected by the deregulation and the tax cuts and everything else,” Hassett responded.
“A lot of us at the White House think that these economic responses are exaggerated by critics,” he expanded. “Even if we think that there will be some negative effect from the trade side, that’s still a small share of GDP.”
The top economist said tariff talks with Israel and Taiwan will take place Monday, as Trump took to Truth Social to tout that the U.S. is bringing in “billions of dollars a week” from tariffs already in place on “abusing countries.”
“In the end, it’s President Trump that’s going to decide when a deal is good enough. And I think it’s interesting that so many countries are lining up,” Hassett noted.
“Policies like this, in his last term, did help American workers. After, really, two decades of no real wage growth in the U.S., we got more than $6,000 for [families] after we had tariffs and tax cuts and deregulation. And so he’s doubling down on something that he knows works. And he’s going to continue to do that.”
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FOX Business’ Matthew Kazin and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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