As public confidence in the economy dwindles following tariff-war focused initial months of President Donald Trump’s second term, he’s pointing the finger at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. According to one economist, that idea is pretty funny.
“I think the whole idea of it being Biden’s fault… like: ‘He really did his worst in those 19 days in January, we’re still reeling from it is a little,’ I think, is laughable to economists, because on Jan. 1, as the new quarter turned over, we had really passed some milestones when it comes to the inflation struggle that we had all lived through,” Dr. Kathryn Anne Edwards told KNX News’ the LA Local.
Data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that real gross domestic product (GDP) in the U.S. fell at an annual rate of 0.3% during the first quarter of the year. That quarter includes February and March, months where Trump was at the helm of the nation. During the final quarter of Biden’s term, the economy grew by 2.4%.
“The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected an increase in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, and a decrease in government spending,” said the BEA. “These movements were partly offset by increases in investment, consumer spending, and exports.”
Edwards confirmed with LA Local host Jonathan Serviss that the economy has been bracing for the impact of tariffs that Trump began announcing shortly after he took office. These tariffs have been announced for countries across the globe, including the U.S.’s largest trading partners and China in particular.
“What we learned this morning was that the kind of effect of the tariff policy, those announced in February, those announced in March, but not those announced an April, had some deleterious effects on the economy, but through some rather, I would say, interesting ways,” said Edwards.
She explained that businesses that rely on goods from those trading partners have responded to Trump’s announcements by stocking up on supply before the tariffs kick in. Think of how people stocked up on toilet paper during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is why we don’t typically have economic policy that we shoot from the hip,” Edwards said. “This is why we tend to be deliberate, and transparent, and methodical about our economic policy, because in the balance are people’s lives and livelihoods. In the balance is their ability to put food on table, to have access to the goods that they need for their life to function.”
Trump brushed off those concerns this week.
“Much of it we don’t need. Somebody said: ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” said the president. “But we’re not talking about something that we have to go out of our way...”
However, more than dolls are at stake with tariffs looming, according to Gene Seroka, CEO of the Port of Los Angeles.
“What we’re seeing now is that dock workers, truckers, warehouse folks will be having less job opportunities beginning next week,” he said. “If you’re a trucker today, hauling four and five containers, beginning next week you’ll likely be just moving two or three. Dock workers who’ve been getting overtime working double shifts will likely work less than a full work week. This will hit our local and regional economy immediately.”
Already, polls have shown that Americans are concerned about how Trump is handling the economy. In addition to tariff announcements impacting the GDP, they have sent the stock market on a roller coaster ride, and even some conservatives have conceded that the first 100 days of Trump 2.0 can’t be labelled as a success quite yet.