President Donald Trump confirmed Monday at the White House that the economy might be headed for a recession.

“Well, it may be,” he said when asked by reporters whether he thought the economy was in a rescission. “We’re not thinking in terms of recession. We’re thinking in terms of the virus.”

Stocks fell sharply on Monday afternoon as the president spoke in the White House press briefing room. The Dow Jones fell by 12.93 percent on Monday afternoon, down 3,000 points.

The president said that he would continue fighting the spread of the virus, which was the best thing possible to fix the economy.

“Best thing I can do for the stock market, we have to get through this crisis,” Trump said. “That’s what I can do. The best thing we can do. That’s what I think about.”

He predicted a tremendous economic surge for the United States after the virus was finished as a result of “pent-up demand.”

“Once this virus is gone, I think you are going to have a stock market like nobody’s ever seen before,” he said.