Photo illustration by 731; Photographer: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Trump Says He’s Off to Best Start as President. The Economy Says Something Else
Trump’s second term begins with a decline in US GDP, while jobs and prices hold steady. On almost all fronts, the outlook is getting worse.
Donald Trump was elected on a pledge to fix all kinds of problems confronting the US economy, from stubborn inflation to a long-term decline in manufacturing jobs. He’s already declared that he’s off to the greatest start of a presidential term ever. The numbers don’t back him up.
The US economy shrank for the first time in three years in the first quarter — mostly a result of surging imports, as corporate America tried to front-run Trump's tariffs. The rest of what economists call the “hard data” have been relatively solid since the president was inaugurated on Jan. 20, with the job market holding steady and inflation showing signs of stabilizing.