Hassett: Trump will have ‘a wonderful conversation’ this week with Xi

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said Sunday that he expects President Donald Trump to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week on tariffs.

“President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi. That’s our expectation,” Hassett told anchor George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.

Currently, China has a 30% tariff level for goods coming into the U.S., which is reduced from the original 145% Trump levied. A 90-day reprieve from the 145% tariffs was given with the intent that the two countries would negotiate a wider trade deal.

Hassett said he was unsure of the exact date the two leaders would plan to speak to each other.

“I’m not sure, George, because you never know in international relations, but my expectation is that both sides have expressed a willingness to talk. And I’d like to also add that people are talking every day, so [U.S. Trade Representative] Jamieson Greer, his team and President Xi’s team in China, they’re talking every day trying to move the ball forward on this matter.”

Trump’s tariffs have faced a number of court challenges. An appeals court reinstated Trump’s tariffs this week after a Wednesday court order blocked them. The appeals court decision stands for the time being.

The block on the tariffs came after the Court of International Trade decided that the administration’s evocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give the president the right to set “unlimited” tariffs. The Trump administration argued that the court order may harm their progress in negotiations.

Here are more highlights from Hassett’s interview:

Hassett on the legal challenges to tariffs

Stephanopoulos: Are you confident the Supreme Court is going to uphold these tariffs? What happens if they don’t?

Hassett: Right. Well, one of the things we’ve been doing all the way back until 2017, when I used to speak with you on the show last time, George, is that we’ve studied every possible way that President Trump’s tariff agenda could be pursued. And Jamieson Greer, the best trade lawyer in the business, came down and said the IEPA pursuit that we’re pursuing is the fastest, and it’s the way that’s the most legally sound.

And so we’re very thrilled. We are very confident that the judges will uphold this law. And so I think that’s Plan A. And we’re very, very confident that Plan A is all we’re ever going to need. But if, for some reason, some judge were to say that it’s not a national emergency when more Americans die from fentanyl than have ever died in all American wars combined, that’s not an emergency that the president has authority over, if that ludicrous statement is made by a judge somewhere, then we’ll have other alternatives that we can pursue as well to make sure that we make America trade fair again.

On possible deals this week

Stephanopoulos: Where are we exactly? When will we see an actual agreement? Will we see any this week?

Hassett: I expected that we were going to probably see one perhaps as early as last week. And I think that one of the things that’s happened is that the trade team has been focused 100 percent like a laser beam on the China matter, to make sure that there are no supply disruptions because these licenses are coming a little slower than we would like. And so, we’ve been focused like a laser beam on that last week, and the presidents, we expect, will discuss the matter this week. Once that thing’s resolved, then we’re going to take deals into the Oval that Jamieson Greer and Howard Lutnick have negotiated.

Hassett on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

Stephanopoulos: Facing numerous challenges to the bill in the Senate right now from both the right and the left, are you confident that the president’s deadline is going to be met?

Hassett: Deadlines are deadlines, right? So, the one thing I could say is that we’re 100 percent confident that this bill is going to pass because in the end, the senators who are worried about the bill understand that you’re going to cast the economy into recession and vote for the biggest tax hike in history if you vote against the bill.