President
Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed his predecessor and defended his sweeping
tariffs after new data showed the U.S.
economy contracting last quarter, while warning that his promised “boom” will “take a while.”
“This is [former President
Joe] Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th,” Trump said in a
Truth Social post.
“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,’” he claimed.
“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!!!” Trump wrote.
The defensive social media post came less than an hour after the release of a U.S. Department of Commerce report showing
gross domestic product fell at a 0.3% annualized pace in the first three months of the year.
It was the first quarter of negative growth since Q1 of 2022.
Trump’s claim that the negative GDP and subsequent market declines were a result of Biden’s policies is inaccurate, however.
According to the Commerce Department, the GDP figure reflects a wave of imports that companies made in an effort to get ahead of Trump’s promised tariffs. Also weighing on GDP was a drop last quarter in government spending, driven largely by a cut in defense.