Trump Discounts Recession, Says 'I Don't Know' on Due Process

President Trump in an interview aired Sunday pushed back against analysts' predictions about a recession, said he might abandon Ukraine-Russia peace talks, and, despite the oath he took on Inauguration Day, deferred to his lawyers about whether the president is obligated to uphold the Constitution's due process guarantee. He also suggested how 11-year-olds can contribute to his trade war against China in the interview by Kristen Welker on NBC's Meet the Press, which was taped Friday at Mar-a-Lago, per the AP. The topics included:

• Due process: Asked if he agrees with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that everyone in the US, whether a citizen or not, deserves due process, Trump would not commit. "I don't know," Trump answered, per the New York Times. "I'm not, I'm not a lawyer." Adhering to due process could necessitate millions of court cases, slowing his mass deportations of people he described as murderers and drug dealers, Trump said. "I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it," he said. Trump said his lawyers will "obviously follow what the Supreme Court said."
• Economic tension: The conversation became heated on a couple of points, one being some Wall Street analysts' contention that a recession is looking more likely. "Well, I tell you something else. Some people on Wall Street say that we're going to have the greatest economy in history," he said. He again offered a reassurance, per the Washington Post. "Everything's OK," he said. "I said this is a transition period." Another sore spot was the price of strollers, which Welker said is rising since he imposed tariffs. "Well, I don't know, when you say strollers are going up, what kind of a thing?" Trump said. "I'm saying that gasoline is going down. Gasoline is thousands of times more important than a stroller or some place?"

• Russia and Ukraine: Trump said he's been close to walking away from peace talks and still might do that. "There will be a time when I will say, 'OK, keep going. Keep being stupid and keep fighting,'" he said.
• Dolls: Trump took heat for saying during a Cabinet meeting last week that price increases on goods caused by his tariffs might mean "children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls"—and that's fine. Aides doubled down on that view, saying US-made dolls are better anyway, per the Hill. On Meet the Press, Trump returned to the subject. "I don't think that a beautiful baby girl needs—that's 11 years old—needs to have 30 dolls," he said. "I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China."
• The next president: After saying a month ago that he wasn't kidding about pursuing a third term in office, Trump stepped back. "This is not something I'm looking to do," he told Welker. "I'm looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican." He declined to name a GOP favorite to follow him but mentioned Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as possibilities.

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