Trump Economic Adviser on Trade War Fallout: ‘Heck of a Lot’ of U.S. Companies About to Report Low Earnings

White House economics adviser Kevin Hassett was in a chipper mood on Thursday as he predicted many companies will announce lower than expected earnings as a result of the trade war with China.

As Hassett spoke to Poppy Harlow on CNN, he was asked about how the Dow is down by more than 500 points today after Apple’s shares dropped by 9% amid a weak sales forecast. Since Apple CEO Tim Cook is attributing this to President Donald Trump‘s trade war with China, Hassett argued that this fits with what he’s been saying about how the U.S. economy is supposedly growing while intercontinental markets are slowing down.

“It’s not going to be just Apple,” Hassett said. “There are a heck of a lot of U.S. companies that have sales in China that are going to be watching their earnings being downgraded next year until we get a deal with China.”

As Hassett continued to talk up Trump’s pressure campaign against China, Harlow called his admission a “significant warning” about future connotations of the trade war. When she asked him if Trump is concerned about the stock market having the worst performance it has seen since the Great Depression, Hassett insisted that Trump is on it, and that markets tend to fluctuate anyway in periods of expansion and international negotiations.

The interview went on with Hassett facing questions over equity markets and whether Trump was right to say market losses last month were just a “glitch.”

Watch above, via CNN

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