The White House defended the state of the economy on Tuesday, saying the U.S. is in a “period of transition” — a far cry from the promises President Donald Trump made on the campaign trail that he would bring down inflation and make America affordable again on “day one.”
“We are in a period of transition from the mess that was created under Joe Biden in the previous administration,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a briefing. “Joe Biden left this country in an economic disaster.”
Over the weekend, Trump declined to rule out the possibility of a recession on the horizon, sending fears through the global market. Now his administration is faced with an early test after a steep stock market sell-off on Monday.
Leavitt said credit card loan increases, wage declines and high prices under the previous administration were proof that the Trump White House started at a deficit. And she said that the White House is “implementing the formula that we know works.”
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“So we are in a period of transition from that economic nightmare under a president who had no idea what he was doing, never held a private sector job in his life, into a golden age of American manufacturing under a businessman and a dealmaker in chief,” Leavitt added.
Andrew Bates, a former Biden official, pushed back on that characterization. “Trump broke it and bought it,” he said in a statement. “Trump could turn a lot of this around with a word, but he knows he can’t cut taxes for the rich without tariff revenue from everyone else.”
The White House insisted that tariffs are necessary to rectify what it sees as the country’s economic woes and repeated that it would take time for Americans to see the benefits, which it says will be substantial. That vision is at odds with the views of many economists, who say tariffs would raise prices for Americans and destabilize a relatively healthy economy.
That divide was illustrated in a fiery back-and-forth between Leavitt and a reporter who questioned the nature of Trump’s tariffs.
“Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries that, again, have been ripping us off,” Leavitt said. “Tariffs are a tax cut for the American people, and the president is a staunch advocate of tax cuts.”
“I’m sorry, have you ever paid a tariff? Because I have,” said a reporter from the Associated Press.
Leavitt pushed back, saying, “I think it’s insulting that you’re trying to test my knowledge of economics and the decision that this president has made.”
The president has said he will raise tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports by an additional 25%, bringing the total duties to 50% on March 12, after a recent spat with Canadian leaders who placed 25% tariffs on electricity exports to the U.S. and are now threatening to cut off electricity altogether.
When asked by NOTUS if the Trump administration still views Canada as a “close ally,” Leavitt said they might also now be a “competitor.”
“Well, I think Canada is a neighbor. They are a partner. They have always been an ally. Perhaps they are becoming a competitor now,” she said. “But as the president also laid out in his Truth Social post today, he believes that Canadians would benefit greatly from becoming the 51st state of the United States of America.”
Stocks have continued to slide Tuesday: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 500 points, while the S&P 500 dropped nearly a point and the Nasdaq dropped nearly half a point.
Asked how much pain the White House can tolerate from a tumbling market and lower approval ratings before it pulls back on the tariffs, Leavitt wouldn’t say.
“The president has been working hard every single day to alleviate the pain that was inflicted by the previous administration through massive deregulation, through ‘drill, baby, drill,’ as we like to call it, unleashing the might of our energy industry, which we know will ultimately drive down costs for consumers.”
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Jasmine Wright is a reporter at NOTUS.
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