President Donald Trump seems to have two opposing messages about the economy.

Anything good should be credited to him. Anything bad is Joe Biden’s fault.

As the Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the U.S. economy had contracted during the first three months of the year, Trump tried to change the narrative by detailing recent domestic investments and blaming his predecessor for the economic woes.

“We’re celebrating the most successful first 100 days of any administration in American history,” Trump declared in a 40-minute speech on the economy at the White House.

He did not mention that the stock market has endured its worst start to a presidency since Gerald Ford. He later acknowledged the weak economic data, adding: “This is Biden’s economy, because we took over on Jan. 20. And I think you have to give us a little bit of time to get moving.”

Decline in US Gross Domestic Product

The decline in U.S. gross domestic product in the opening quarter of the year came as a striking reversal from robust growth in the final three months of 2024, which came under Biden but, in part, after Trump’s election. Trump took credit for the economy “really heating up after the election,” even as he said the recent decline was Biden’s fault.

The contraction appeared to reflect the costs of Trump’s chaotic off-and-on approach to steep tariffs, which have roiled financial markets and alarmed consumers and businesses. Trump on Wednesday called them “intelligently used tariffs.” Some economists say they will cause a recession.

The S&P 500 had not fallen more in the first 100 days of a presidential term since 1974, when Ford replaced Richard Nixon during a recession and rising inflation. The contraction of the broader U.S. economy reported Wednesday — at a 0.3% annual rate, according to the Commerce Department — was the first drop in a quarter in three years.

“This is Biden’s economy,” Trump said, more than once.

He said companies with representatives in attendance had collectively unveiled more than $2 trillion in recent investments. He urged them to make “beautiful” microchips in the United States. (Last month, Trump attacked the CHIPS Act, a bipartisan law passed during the Biden administration to wean the United States off its reliance on Asia for semiconductors, saying it was a “horrible thing” and urging lawmakers to scrap it.)

Jeffries Said Economic Slowdown Has Little to Do With Biden

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the minority leader, said the economic slowdown had little to do with Biden.

“This is not Joe Biden’s economy, Donald,” Jeffries, flanked by Democrats, said in a speech at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. “It is your economy. It is the Trump economy.”

Cris deRitis, deputy chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that “it’s hard to say when one president’s effects end and the other one’s begin.” And most economists were expecting some slowing in the economy at the start of the year, he added.

Still, the weakness in Wednesday’s economic report was heavily driven by an increase in imports as consumers and retailers raced to scoop up products before new tariffs took effect.

“I struggle to see how that was induced by the Biden administration,” deRitis said. “Clearly households and businesses are responding to the tariffs, or even the announcement of the tariffs.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Tim Balk/Pete Marovich
c. 2025 The New York Times Company