Trump blames Biden for tariffs-linked contraction

What happened

The U.S. economy shrank 0.3% in the first three months of 2025, its first contraction in three years, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. President Donald Trump repeatedly blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for the disappointing GDP number and urged Americans to "be patient" and let his steep tariffs kick in.

Who said what

"This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's," Trump said on social media after markets plummeted on the GDP news. The downturn "has nothing to do with tariffs." He later told reporters that "this is Biden's economy because we took over on Jan. 20." But Biden left office with the economy "on a strong footing" after three years of solid growth, The Wall Street Journal said. The "main driver of the first-quarter contraction was Trump's trade war."

Wednesday's economic data wasn't all "doom and gloom," CNN said. Although consumer spending fell and prices rose, businesses "actually stepped up their spending," probably to "get ahead of any expected price increases stemming from Trump's tariffs." The resulting surge in imports was a big factor in the GOP contraction.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Still, Trump was elected because "voters bought his argument that he could skillfully manage the economy" and "eradicate inflation," David Sanger said at The New York Times, so the negative GDP number was a "sharp political jolt as well as a blinking economic warning."

What next?

Wednesday's "backward-looking" economic data were "better than they look at first glance," Axios said, but the "forward-looking" indicators "are worse," suggesting "reasons to worry about what comes next." Thanks to Trump's trade war, Politico said, "fewer ships from Asia will enter West Coast ports" in the coming weeks and consumers will "face supply shortages, price increases and layoffs by summer."

"Well, maybe the children will have to have two dolls instead of 30 dolls" at Christmas, "and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally," Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. But China is "having tremendous difficulty because their factories are not doing business."