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President Donald Trump says his second White House term is off to the best start in U.S. history. Fresh economic figures tell a different story. Gross domestic product slid in the January‑to‑March quarter, the first contraction in three years. Economists blame a wave of imports ordered before new tariffs took effect. Beyond that,  hiring continues, and inflation has cooled after last year’s jump. Surveys of household confidence, business investment plans and expectations for sales, employment and growth have dropped sharply. Analysts say the main culprit is the tariff fight that the president launched against trading partners around the world. Current financial markets reflect the tension. U.S. shares are posting the weakest return at this point of any modern presidency, and the dollar’s value has sunk further than it did under George W. Bush, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden. Voters who backed Trump largely for his economic message have begun to question that record. Trump promised to close trade gaps using import taxes Throughout the campaign and his first term, Trump promised to use import taxes to close trade gaps, lift government revenue, and bring factory jobs back to American soil. The tariffs imposed since early April represent the biggest barrier to foreign goods in more than a hundred years, even after the administration paused some of the duties announced on April 2. Those reversals, plus warnings of more levies to come, have left companies at home and abroad guessing about rules that can change overnight. Bloomberg Economics’ index of global trade uncertainty now stands well above its level during the first‑term trade clash. Trump often cites the merchandise trade deficit, built up over five decades, as proof that the United States is “getting ripped off.” Yet the first effect of the new levies was a flood of imports. Corporations rushed ahead to dodge…

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Filed under: News - @ May 4, 2025 4:15 am