Trump blames Biden for ‘overhang’ after GDP data comes in negative

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preCharge News POLITICS — United States gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, declined at a 0.3% annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. It was, on the surface, a stunning reversal from the strong growth at the end of last year, when the economy expanded at a 2.4% rate.

The US economy contracted as a rush to import goods ahead of President Trump’s tariffs weighed on economic growth, the department said. It is the first contraction in three years, a sign that the economy was softening before the highest tariffs took effect.

This decline in economic activity coincides with a sharp plunge in consumer sentiment, which fell by 32% in April to its lowest point since the 1990 recession. Influential economists had previously warned that the risk of the US economy falling into recession this year was close to 50%.

Trump blames Biden

President Donald Trump cast blame of his predecessor, Joe Biden, as the stock market wrapped up a tumultuous month and new Commerce Department data showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly shrunk in the first quarter.

“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in a Wednesday 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,’” Trump’s post reads. “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!!!”