US President Donald Trump and his advisers have defended sweeping tariffs on imports and vowed to remain the course, regardless of market turmoil and calls to keep away from a commerce struggle.

In a sequence of tv interviews, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent performed down current inventory market falls and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, insisted reciprocal tariffs can be applied as deliberate.

Bessent stated there was “no motive” to anticipate a recession because of the turmoil. “That is an adjustment course of,” he stated.

In the meantime, one other prime adviser, Kevin Hassett, stated greater than 50 nations have contacted Trump to attempt to negotiate a deal.

All three main inventory indexes within the US plunged greater than 5% on Friday, whereas the S&P 500 dropped nearly 6% in the worst week for the US inventory market since 2020.

In an indication market fragility may proceed this week, Saudi Arabia’s inventory alternate – which trades on Sundays – ended practically 7% decrease, its greatest every day loss for the reason that pandemic, state-owned media stated.

US banking large JP Morgan has predicted a 60% likelihood of a US and world recession following Trump’s tariffs announcement.

Chatting with reporters aboard Air Drive One on Sunday night, Trump stated European and Asian nations are “dying to make a deal”.

He additionally pushed again in opposition to a reporter’s inquiry about American shoppers’ “ache threshold” as fears of steep worth will increase and a market recession develop.

“I feel your query is so silly,” he instructed the reporter. “I do not need something to go down. However generally it’s important to take drugs to repair one thing.”

Challenged concerning the turmoil, Lutnick instructed CBS Information on Sunday that the ten% “baseline” tariff on all imports, which got here into impact a day earlier, will certainly “keep in place for days and weeks”.

Lutnick went on say the steeper reciprocal tariffs had been nonetheless on observe.

Increased customized tariffs on roughly 60 nations, dubbed the “worst offenders”, are resulting from come into impact on Wednesday 9 April.

When requested about these tariffs, Lutnick stated they had been coming. “[Trump] introduced it and he wasn’t kidding,” he stated.

Lutnick additionally defended tariffs imposed on two tiny Antarctic islands populated solely by penguins, saying it was to shut “loopholes” for nations resembling China to “ship by way of”.

Bessent used an interview with Meet the Press on NBC to argue Trump had “created most leverage for himself, and greater than 50 nations have approached the administration about decreasing their non-tariff commerce obstacles, decreasing their tariffs, stopping forex manipulation”.

Kevin Hassett, one other prime financial adviser to Trump, additionally repeated the declare that greater than 50 nations had expressed a want to start negotiations. Neither Hassett nor Bessent gave additional particulars of which nations had been in contact.

Elsewhere, Indonesia and Taiwan have stated over the weekend that they won’t impose retaliatory tariffs after the US introduced a 32% levy on imports from each nations.

Vietnam’s chief, To Lam, has requested Trump to delay a 46% responsibility on Vietnamese exports to the US by “at the very least 45 days”, in line with a letter seen by information company AFP and the New York Occasions.

Nevertheless, China introduced on Friday that it should impose a 34% tariff on all US imports, starting on Thursday 10 April.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned on Saturday that “the world as we knew it has gone”.

Starmer stated the UK authorities will preserve pushing for an financial cope with the US that avoids a few of the tariffs.

A Downing Road spokesman added Starmer and new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney agreed in a cellphone name that “an all-out commerce struggle is in no-one’s curiosity”.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is anticipated to fulfill Trump for commerce talks in Washington DC.

Netanyahu, talking to reporters as he boarded a plane-bound for the US, stated he’s “the primary worldwide chief that’s assembly with Trump” for the reason that new tariffs had been launched.

He says this exhibits their “private connection and the connection between our nations that’s so important on this time”.

Anti-Trump protests had been held in cities throughout the US over the weekend, within the largest nationwide present of opposition for the reason that president took workplace in January.

Tons of of hundreds of individuals turned out in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, amongst different cities, with protesters citing grievances with Trump’s agenda starting from social to financial points.

Trump has urged the US to “dangle robust” after the market turmoil.