Charlie Gasparino: “We may be in a recession”
Gasparino: “Donald Trump is playing to his base”
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From the April 7, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum
CHARLES GASPARINO (FOX BUSINESS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT): I like Mohammed, but he represents a globalist attitude. It's a very Wall Street attitude, and Wall Street is freaked out right now. Main Street is not. And Main Street is the Trump voter.
And, you know, I did a little back of the envelope analysis; what is the mean -- what is the average 401(k) plan? Average? Like $130,000, not a lot. What is the mean? 50% above and below. So it's like 50. American people, because of a lot of things, are not in this market, they're not obsessed like Mohammed is. They're worried about jobs, they're worried about inflation, okay? That's more important. They're worried about getting their social security check, which is essentially their 401(k). And I think that Donald Trump is playing to his base now.
Now, here's where I think it gets interesting and where I agree with Mohammed. The mixed messaging is off the charts. It's Howard Lutnick one day saying, you know, "Tariffs are going to cure everything and, you know, plug the budget deficit with $2 trillion." And Scott Bessent coming out just now saying, "Well, we're working on a deal. We're dealmaking," and the markets go up.
And I've been reporting today on Fox Business on The Big Money Show, in particular, that that's the message, the latter, the Bessent message, is what the White House is aiming for now. We're going to hear a lot of stuff about deals. And we may have a recession, we may be in a recession, because, remember, business has ratcheted back in preparation for this. But after that, after he gets these trade deals, I think there's a lot of good in this economy. There's tax cuts coming, there's deregulation. If he levels the playing field and cuts these deals, well, this is one big Wall Street freak out that'll come back, the economy will come back.