National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett told ABC’s “This Week” that President Trump is focused on ensuring the U.S. has a domestic steel industry capable of supplying its needs “China is dumping of steel not just because they love us and they want to give us nice steel, they’re doing that because it prepares them to win a war if they’re the only ones who can make steel,” he said. “President Trump is going to make sure that never happens in the U.S., that we don’t have the steel we need in case of war, and Europe should do that as well.” “We’ve got to be ready in case things don’t happen the way we want, because if we have cannons but not cannonballs, then we can’t fight a war.”

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: Let’s talk about steel. The European Commission responded this morning to the president’s announcement of doubling on the tariffs on Friday. They say in a statement to ABC News that it undermines efforts to find a negotiated solution, and they’re prepared to impose countermeasures. Your response? KEVIN HASSETT, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: Right, well, the problem is there’s an OECD study that comes from Paris that says that because Chinese steel production is something like double the global capacity that steel industries all across the world are in trouble because of China dumping of steel and China is doing that not just because they love us and they want to give us nice steel, they’re doing that because it prepares them to win a war because they’re the only ones who can make steel. And so President Trump is going to make sure that never happens in the U.S., that we don’t have the steel we need in case of war, and Europe should do that as well. STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but I asked you about the European response. I mean, they say they’re going to — HASSETT: The European response is they should protect their steel, too. I mean, the bottom line is that we can’t go into — we don’t ever want to have a war. Like President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi. That’s our expectation. But the bottom line is that we’ve got to be ready in case things don’t happen the way we want, because if we have cannons but not cannonballs, then we can’t fight a war. And if we don’t have steel, then the U.S. isn’t ready, and we’re not preparing ourselves for something. And if we’re not strong, then that’s when bad things happen. So, we have to show strength. We have to have a steel industry that’s ready for American defense.

RealClearPolitics Videos