Trump economic point man downplays blips as market plummets after president wont rule out recession

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s top White House economist downplayed Monday’s stock-market wipeout as “blips in the data” — one day after the commander in chief declined to rule out a possible recession as he slaps tariffs on America’s three leading trade partners.Trump remained out of public view Monday, in a rare departure from form — with all three of the events on his public schedule, including an afternoon meeting with technology CEOs, closed to the press as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 2% and the Nasdaq dropped 4% in its worst trading day since 2022.At one point, the Dow was down more than 1,100 points before paring its losses late in the day and finishing down 890 points.“There are a lot of reasons to be extremely bullish about the economy going forward,” National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC.“But for sure, this quarter, there are some blips in the data,” added Hassett, known for his affable demeanor and near-permanent smile.Hassett, 62, also predicted that the US would not undergo a recession this year after Trump, 78, told Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures”: “I hate to predict things like that.”“What’s going to happen,” Hassett forecast Monday, “is the first quarter [GDP] is going to squeak into the positive category, and then the second quarter [GDP] is going to take off as everybody sees the reality of the tax cuts.”Monday evening, a White House official said that “we’re seeing a strong divergence between animal spirits of the stock market and what we’re actually seeing unfold from businesses and business leaders, and the latter is obviously more meaningful than the former on what’s in store for the economy in the medium to long term.”The White House official also circulated a 24-bullet-point list of positive indicators, including a spate of businesses vowing to boost investm...