Trump wants the credit, but not the blame, for US economy

President Donald Trump is touting strong job numbers as proof of his economic leadership while blaming former President Joe Biden for lingering problems, even as economic indicators show mixed signals.

“I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy because he’s done a terrible job,” President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker set to air on “Meet the Press.” “He did a terrible job on everything, from his autopen — which I’m sure he knew nothing about, some of the things he was supposedly signing.”

Trump did not explain how he separates the impacts of each presidency on the current state of the economy. Still, he was quick to link April’s better-than-expected jobs report to his own policies, despite only recently returning to the White House.

In the first 100 days of his new term, Trump has aggressively pushed to overhaul the global economic order, reintroducing broad tariffs that affect both rivals and allies. He has also prioritized bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., though many of his punitive measures have been temporarily paused for 90 days to allow time for negotiations.

However, the early data has not been entirely favorable. The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter of 2025, a notable downturn from the 2.4 percent growth seen in the final quarter of 2024. Consumer confidence has also taken a hit.

“Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. “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, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”

In April, U.S. employers added 177,000 jobs and hourly wages rose, although many of the federal job cuts proposed by the Trump administration have not yet impacted employment figures. Despite these gains, Trump’s approval rating on economic issues stands at just 39 percent, according to a recent CNN poll.

“Ultimately, I take responsibility for everything,” Trump told Welker. “But I’ve only just been here for a little more than three months.”

He added, “The stock market — look at what’s happened in the last short period of time. Didn’t it have nine or 10 days in a row, or 11 days, where it’s gone up? And the tariffs have just started kicking in. And we’re doing really well. Psychologically, I mean, the fake news was giving me such press on the tariffs. The tariffs are going to make us rich. We’re going to be a very rich country.”

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