President Trump on Wednesday blamed turbulence in the stock market on his predecessor despite it being sparked in the wake of his widespread tariff policy earlier this month.
Trump insisted the stock market tumbles were not the result of his tariff policy, which was imposed on nearly every country in the world.
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang,’” Trump said on Truth Social.
The president added, “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!!!’”
Former President Biden’s term struggled with record-high inflation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a stagnant housing market and increasing interest rates, but began to rebound in the final months of him holding office.
Still, that wasn’t enough for Democrats to prevail in the 2024 election, with Trump’s victory largely attributed to his promises of lowering prices and making the economy stronger.
But Trump’s tariff policy so far has injected widespread uncertainty in the stock market both in the U.S. and abroad as well as fears of a recession. Trump and the White House, however, insist his tariff policy will result in a major economic boom.
The stock market, however, continues to struggle. It opened with losses on Wednesday just minutes after the president’s post on Truth Social, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 351 points.
Trump’s first 100 days in office were the worst for the stock market at the beginning of a presidential term since former President Nixon’s second term in the 1970s, CNBC reported.
And, data released Wednesday by the Commerce Department found that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) shrank during the first quarter of 2025, falling at an annualized rate of 0.3 percent during the first three months of the year after an annualized increase of 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Trump imposed hefty tariffs on all trading partners earlier this month, setting off steady loses on Wall Street. He announced a 90-day pause on tariffs a week later, amid increasing pressure from top investors and Capitol Hill, and kept a 10 percent tariff in place on all trading partners and a 145 percent overall tariff on China.
The administration has been working to strike deals on tariffs with trading partners before the 90 days expires, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters Tuesday that no deals have been made. He expressed optimism about a deal with India, but didn’t set a timeline for an announcement.
Trump was asked about his tariff policy in a 100-days interview with ABC that aired on Tuesday night and in particular his response to economic experts who say that policy would lead to a rise in consumer prices.
“People are worried, even some people who voted for you, saying ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ So how do you address those concerns?” ABC host Terry Moran asked Trump.
“They did sign up for it, actually, and this is what I campaigned on,” Trump replied. He added, when questions about price increases on electronics, clothing and home building, that “China probably will eat those tariffs.”
While campaigning for president last year, Trump said he expects the U.S. economy to crash during Biden’s presidency and that he hoped it would before he would take office in January 2025, if reelected.
