President Trump lashes out at Fed Chair Powell over economy comments
President Donald Trump lashed out at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after his comments on Trump’s tariffs and their impact on the economy.
President Donald Trump is blaming his predecessor for the country’s economic slowdown in the first three months of the year, calling it the “Biden Overhang” one day after reaching 100 days in the White House and with more troubling signs emerging that are tied to the Republican’s economic policies.
U.S. gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services, shrank at an 0.3% annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said on April 30. That’s down from a 2.4% increase at the end of last year.
Stocks dipped in reaction to the latest U.S. government economic news, prompting Trump in a morning Truth Social post to put the blame on former President Joe Biden: “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” the president wrote. “I didn’t take over until January 20th.”
Trump’s comments came as businesses imported a massive trove of goods before Trump’s sweeping tariffs took effect, which widened the U.S. trade deficit and curtailed growth. Excluding the tariff effects, the underlying economy turned in a solid showing in the first quarter despite tumbling consumer confidence and rising business uncertainty over the import fees.
On Truth Social, Trump put a positive spin on his economic policies and promised voters who elected him last November that more time is needed to improve the U.S. situation.
“Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden “Overhang,” Trump wrote. “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!!!”
The U.S. stock market recorded its worst first 100 days of any presidential term since President Gerald Ford assumed office after President Nixon resigned in 1974, according to a Center for Financial Research and Analysis report.
The president has imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries around the world and claimed during the interview that the tariffs were bringing in “two billion and three billion dollars a day.”
The administration has currently imposed a 90-day pause on new reciprocal tariffs, while raising rates on Chinese goods to as high as 245% when counting the tariffs imposed during Trump’s first term and the Biden administration.
Contributing: Paul Davidson