President asks for ‘patience’ as businesses react negatively to Trump’s aggressive efforts to upend global trade.
United States President Donald Trump blames former president Joe Biden for the decline of key economic indicators during his first months as president, amid widespread disruptions caused by Trump’s tariff policies.
The US economy contracted by 0.3 percent during the first quarter of the year, the first such drop in three years. During the last three months of 2024, the economy grew by 2.4 percent.
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” Trump said in a post on his website Truth Social. “Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”
Since taking office, Trump’s efforts to upend the global trade system through a series of aggressive import duties have caused turmoil in financial markets amid fears of an escalating trade war and uncertainty surrounding the tariff policies.
The first quarter saw an uptick in imports, as US businesses seek to get out ahead of higher costs that could accompany future tariffs. Inflation, however, continues to ease. In March, consumer prices were 2.3 percent higher than they were a year earlier, compared with 2.5 percent in February.
In a press release from the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt mirrored Trump’s claims that Biden was to blame for any turbulence while also stating that the Wednesday economic report showed “strong economic momentum”.
“It’s no surprise the leftovers of Biden’s economic disaster have been a drag on economic growth, but the underlying numbers tell the real story of the strong momentum President Trump is delivering,” Leavitt said.
Many economic analysts blame Trump’s chaotic approach to tariffs for the US’s flagging indicators. Since taking office, the S&P 500 has shrunk by about 7.3 percent.
“If the blowout on trade was the result of firms pre-buying imported inputs to beat the tariffs, the decay in the trade balance will reverse in second quarter,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, told the news agency Reuters. “That will generate some GDP growth. However, corrosive uncertainty and higher taxes, tariffs are a tax on imports, will drag GDP growth back into the red by the end of this year.”
In recent weeks, the White House has suggested that it could draw down tariffs with key US trading partners such as China, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stating last week that current rates were not “sustainable”.