Weak Gdp Report Tied To Tariffs Has Trump Trying To Blame Biden On The State Of The Economy
President Donald Trump got worrisome news on Wednesday about how the U.S. economy is battening down for potential fallout from his tariffs - and he was quick to try to pin the blame on his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
The government reported that the U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.3 during the first three months of the year. Behind the decline was a surge in imports as companies tried to front-run the sweeping tariffs on autos, steel, aluminum and almost every country. And even positive signs of increased domestic consumption indicated that purchases might be occurring before the import taxes lead to price hikes .
Trump pointed his finger at Biden as the stock market fell Wednesday morning in response to the gross domestic product report.
"This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's," the Republican president, who took office in January, posted on his social media site. "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."
But the GDP report gives Democrats ammunition to claim that Trump's policies could shove the economy into a recession.