Trump addresses stock market losses, China trade deficit

Despite Trump’s reposting of a video that claimed he’s purposely crashing the stock market, the president’s top economic adviser on Sunday denied that’s his strategy.

On ABC News’ “This Week,” anchor George Stephanopoulos pointed out the post on Trump’s Truth Social platform to White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and asked if he was trying to drive markets down to force the Fed to lower interest rates.

On Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at a conference that Trump's tariff policy will hike prices and slow economic growth. Minutes before Powell spoke, Trump posted on Truth Social, "This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates,” and claimed without evidence that political considerations have played a role in Powell's decision-making on interest-rate policy.

Pressed by Stephanopoulos on the post, Hassett said the White House respected the Fed’s independence and denied that Trump was trying to pressure it to lower rates.

“It is not a strategy for the markets to crash. It's a strategy to create a golden age in America for the American worker. That's his strategy,” Hassett said.

Rep. Don Bacon's office confirmed to ABC News the Nebraska Republican plans to introduce legislation aimed at reining in President Donald Trump's authority to issue new tariffs.

The legislation would largely match the bill introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Maria Cantwell.

The bill would require the White House to notify Congress of any future tariffs within 48 hours and would require Congress to vote to approve a tariff within 60 days.

Bacon, a moderate, has repeatedly publicly broken with the Trump administration.

The bill would likely need the support of House GOP leadership to pass, which is not expected.

Politico first reported the news.

ABC News’ Jay O’Brien

President Donald Trump remains defiant about his tariffs, saying this is "an economic revolution."

In a new social media post, Trump appeared to acknowledge that American consumers will feel pain in the interim and tells them that in the long run it'll be worth it.

"HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic," Trump wrote.

The president also jabbed China, reiterating that other countries have treated the United States "unsustainably badly."

The baseline tariffs went into effect this morning at 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday, April 5.

-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh

Across-the-board 10% tariffs on nearly all imports -- one-half of President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs -- went into effect early Saturday, amid continued economic fallout from Trump's plan.

More severe tariffs on imports from several dozen countries -- including a 34% tax on Chinese goods and a 20% tax on European Union imports -- are slated to go into effect April 9.

Wall Street has been roiling ever since Trump's Wednesday announcement. The trading session on Friday marked the worst day for U.S. stocks since 2020.

Trump has brushed off concerns about the short-term pain economists expect to be passed on to American consumers as a result of the tariffs.