They elected him to improve the economy. Instead, Trump destroyed it.
The US economy, once the envy of the world, quickly ground to a halt in a matter of months after Trump took office. It was a predictable outcome, as economists and experts had warned that enacting broad tariffs would lead to job losses and increased inflation.
What is shocking is that, according to 2024 exit polls, the top issue for Trump voters was the economy.
There is nothing about Trump's history that suggests he understands economics. His wealth, aside from the crypto bribes and money he earned from selling subpar, often tacky, products to his supporters, was inherited. Trump's list of failed businesses fills an entire page, and he was convicted of falsifying business records 34 times. His last presidency was marked by the decline of manufacturing in the US, a loss of total jobs, growing income inequality, and rapidly rising debt.
So why did so many people vote for Trump if they wanted a better economy? They've been repeatedly lied to.
Fox News and other rightwing media said that global high inflation was due to Biden instead of the pandemic. When inflation dropped to normal levels faster than our peer nations, the lie was that it was still high. As GDP growth was robust, Fox said the economy was slowing. And while the debt-to-GDP ratio was shrinking, they said it was rising out of control.
The Biden administration didn’t just tackle inflation and the debt; America experienced the longest stretch of low unemployment in over 50 years, high-tech manufacturing jobs came back to the US, and Biden is the only president in history to have added jobs every month of his presidency. No administration is without its flaws, but the economy was not one of Biden’s.
In June 2024, the World Bank wrote:
“There are, of course, notable bright spots in the global economy. The U.S. economy, in particular, has shown impressive resilience. Growth has remained buoyant in the teeth of the fiercest monetary policy tightening in four decades. U.S. dynamism, in fact, is one reason the global economy enjoys some upside potential over the next two years.”
Ayhan Kose, the World Bank’s deputy chief economist, said at the time that “US growth is exceptional.”
By the time the election rolled around, inflation had returned to normal ranges, wages had been outpacing inflation for years, and the lowest earners had seen the largest gains. However, millions of Americans hadn’t adjusted to the higher prices that had become the new normal during the pandemic recovery.
There was also continuous doomsaying from media outlets and podcasters, such as Joe Rogan, about the best economic situation we could hope for, following a pandemic that shut down the world. Millions of Americans became convinced that the strong economy was a disaster in desperate need of rescue.
Enter Trump, who, with the help of Fox News and right-wing podcasters, created a revisionist history of his first presidency and made impossible promises on how he would make America rich. They invented a problem and then claimed to have the solution.
The man who promised a booming economy has destroyed the one we had.
There have already been more layoffs in 2025 than in the entire year of 2024.
Only 106,000 jobs were created over the last three months. 2024 averaged 186,000 every month.
GDP growth averaged 1.25% for the first half of 2025, compared to the 2024 average of 2.8%.
Manufacturing jobs are leaving America again after hundreds of thousands were added under Biden.
Inflation has been rising for months.
Unemployment is on the rise, and ongoing jobless benefits for people who remain unemployed are at their highest levels since the pandemic.
Farms are going bankrupt at an alarming rate.
Foreign tourism to the US is in decline. Vegas feels empty.
The debt is rising faster than last year. Combine that with the significant decrease in GDP growth, and the debt-to-GDP ratio is going the wrong way fast.
The US credit rating has been downgraded.
Housing costs and interest rates remain stubbornly high.
Consumer sentiment is low.
The numbers are so bad that Trump just fired the person responsible for releasing the monthly job totals. Not because the person did anything wrong, but because the truthful numbers show how badly Trump is failing. The authoritarianism everyone had been warned about once again reared its ugly head.
The entire economic mess is because of Trump’s trade war tariffs. He found the fastest way to bring an economy that was powering the world to a standstill.
The debt is increasing while the government does less for us. Critical weather monitoring services are cut, the bureau that protects consumers from predatory and illegal corporations is cut, and healthcare for millions of Americans, cut. So where is that extra debt coming from? All the money flowing to corporations and the wealthy when they already had a massively oversized share of the pie.
The silver lining is that while Republicans are still supporting Trump, independents are not. The midterms will end the complete control the GOP has over Congress, which has allowed terrible bills, such as the “big beautiful bill,” to become law. But it will take a lot longer to fix the economy than it took to ruin it. And Trump will still be in the White House, ready to block any legislation that would address the mess he created, because it would expose his ineptitude.
The modern Republican Party doesn’t know how to govern and doesn’t understand economic policy. All they have are lies, conspiracy theories, and creating culture wars. None of which will help them, as more and more Americans realize how expensive life is becoming due to their failed policies.
The Fallout From One Bloated Ugly Bill
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” was hurriedly written and then reviewed in the early morning hours to make it less likely that the public would learn everything it encompassed. It was voted on quickly to try and push it through before resistance could grow.