While the economic chaos brought on by Donald Trump has untold amounts of support among the fringe online right, accelerationists who view burning everything down as the starting point for a supercharged libertarian technocracy, you’d expect the view to hold less sway in the halls of power built by the very stability that Trump undermines.
But if you’re expecting conservatives to stick to their long-held values and norms once Trump says jump, then you don’t know MAGA. Republican lawmakers and Trump Cabinet members fanned out to talk shows on Sunday, arguing that Americans shouldn’t fear a potential recession brought on by Trump’s economic agenda.
During a visit to NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refused to weigh in on whether a recession was in the cards for Trump’s second term and questioned whether Americans shouldn’t set their aspirations a little lower.
“There are no guarantees,” Bessent said. “I can predict that we are putting in robust policies that will be durable…We have to wean our country.”
Bessent repeatedly spoke of “adjustments” and “corrections” throughout the interview with Kristen Welker, waving away the stock market’s reaction to recent Trump policies.
“Corrections are normal,” he said. “I’m not worried.”
Bessent said the administration is not concerned about driving up the costs of consumer goods, focusing instead on driving down the cost of housing and cars. While Trump did issue an executive order aimed at lowering housing costs, the directive offered few specifics at how the federal government would reduce the sticker price of the average home.
“The American dream is not ‘let them eat flat screens,'” Bessent said on Sunday. “The American dream is not contingent on cheap baubles from China.”
On “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said that analysts predicting “gridlock” in auto production and a potential contraction of the U.S. economy were merely pushing an anti-Trump agenda.
“I don’t think it’s going to plunge the United States into a recession,” Moreno said. “These experts are funded by lobbyists who have an agenda.”
On “Face the Nation,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended Trump’s retaliatory tariffs.
“That’s what happens in these trade exchanges. They already have high tariffs. They’re going to add more to their tariffs? Fine,” he said.”Canada’s going after whiskey and orange juice…that sounds pretty petty to me, as well.”
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