Panic first, analyze never: Media flubs Trump’s economy



On April 2 — Liberation Day — Donald Trump did exactly what he had promised for over a year: He imposed a slate of reciprocal and punitive tariffs on America’s trading partners.

The left and corporate left-wing media erupted in predictable fashion, and the stock market plummeted. Before a single tariff was announced, doomsayers in the press predicted economic collapse. CNN warned the economy was “flashing yellow lights,” and the BBC claimed Trump’s move risked “economic turbulence — and voter backlash.” A former Biden economic adviser forecast disaster.

Confidence among working Americans remains high. And that confidence will continue driving this economy forward.

When first-quarter GDP numbers showed a 0.3% contraction, the media pounced. They blamed the tariffs — despite the fact that none had taken effect by March 31, the end of the quarter.

While liberal economists celebrated the downturn and declared a recession imminent, they failed to look at the numbers. A closer analysis shows the economy remains fundamentally strong.

The GDP dip came primarily from a 5.1% drop in federal government spending. In other words, a major cause of the decline was the one thing fiscal conservatives have long demanded: smaller government. Isn’t reducing government spending, or at least the growth of government spending, a good thing?

Meanwhile, the rest of the economy showed strength. A Harvard University/HarrisX poll released Monday found that 51% of registered voters believe the economy is "strong" for the first time in four years.

The numbers back up their belief. Nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 177,000 in April. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%. The household survey — used to calculate the jobless rate — showed an even larger gain, with 436,000 more Americans reporting that they held jobs. All told, the economy added 556,000 jobs in the first three months of Trump’s second term.

That growth comes despite the Department of Government Efficiency cutting more than 120,000 federal jobs. Private-sector employment continues to expand even as Washington shrinks — a trend critics said was impossible.

RELATED: Debt spiral looms as Trump tests tariffs to tame rates

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What about inflation? Didn’t the media insist tariffs would bring back the dreaded 1970s stagflation?

Instead, the Consumer Price Index in April came in at 2.3% — the lowest level since February 2021, just before “Bidenflation” took off. The drop came as prices fell for food, gas, used vehicles, and clothing.

Grocery prices alone dropped 0.4%, the sharpest decline since late 2020. Egg prices plummeted 12.7%, their biggest single-month fall since the Reagan era. In other words, the items working families care about — food, fuel, and clothing — are more affordable now than under Biden.

Meanwhile, Trump’s trade strategy is forcing results.

The United Kingdom quickly reached a trade deal. Other countries have accepted temporary “tariff holidays” in exchange for coming to the negotiating table. China and the United States agreed to a “tariff truce.” Canada slashed its U.S. tariff rate to nearly zero. According to Bloomberg, U.S. exports and manufacturing should surge in coming quarters.

Since Trump’s return to office in January, his critics have eagerly predicted economic doom. They cheered “transitory” inflation. They hyped “Bidenomics.” They got both wrong.

They’re wrong again.

Confidence among working Americans remains high. And that confidence will continue driving this economy forward — tariffs, tantrums, and all.

After Media Claimed Trump Was ‘Turbocharging’ Price Hikes, Inflation Hits 4-Year Low

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released Tuesday revealed that inflation rose just 3.4 percent year-over-year in April — the lowest annual increase since February 2021, when the Biden administration was in office. According to economist for the Heritage Foundation E.J. Antoni, food prices in April declined for the first time since November of 2020 […]

Consumer prices are down — why can’t Democrats admit it?



The latest inflation report is in — and for the first time in nearly five years, the Consumer Price Index has dropped.

According to data released April 10, gas prices led the decline, falling 6.3% from February to March and nearly 10% year over year. That’s real relief for working families.

It’s easy to claim every success as earned and every failure as someone else’s fault. But that’s not leadership — it’s childishness.

But don’t expect Joe Biden to credit Donald Trump. That would mean acknowledging the obvious: These results aren’t from Biden’s policies — they’re from Trump’s.

Psychologists call it the “locus of control.” People with an internal locus believe they shape their own destiny. People with an external one think they’re at the mercy of circumstance.

Most people pick one or the other. But Democrats? They flip depending on who happens to sit in the Oval Office.

When inflation stayed low under Trump, they called it luck. When inflation hit a 40-year high under Biden, they blamed Vladimir Putin. And landlords. And grocery stores. And payment processors. Anyone but Biden.

That spin didn’t pay the bills — especially in minority communities hit hardest by inflation.

Federal Reserve data shows that black and Hispanic households spend a higher share of income on gas, groceries, and rent than white households. In cities like Atlanta, Detroit, and Charlotte, black renters saw double-digit rent hikes between 2021 and 2023.

What did we hear from the White House? Excuses. Deflection. “We’re building back better” — but for whom?

Trump gave us the answer. On day one, he signed executive orders to fast-track energy permits, cut red tape, reopen federal lands for drilling, and establish a new National Energy Council.

The results are clear. Energy prices are dropping. Inflation is cooling. And Americans — at long last — are catching a break.

Biden took the opposite approach. He vowed to “end fossil fuel,” killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, blocked offshore drilling, and even sold oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — to China.

When energy prices surged, he pointed fingers. Biden blamed the war in Ukraine. But by January 2022 — before the invasion — gas prices were already up 40% year over year, and inflation had hit 7.5%.

The “Putin price hike” was a convenient distraction from Biden’s failed energy agenda.

And the scapegoating didn’t stop there.

When inflation hit every corner of the economy, Attorney General Merrick Garland pointed at Visa, accusing debit card fees of fueling the crisis. The fees in question? Fourteen cents on a $60 purchase.

Never mind that businesses willingly pay those standard fees. If they had a real problem with them, they could easily switch to any number of alternative companies or payment methods.

If Garland wanted real answers, he should have looked at Biden’s regulatory agenda. One study estimates those rules will cost the average family $47,000 over a lifetime.

When rents spiked, Biden and the Justice Department pointed fingers at landlords and pricing algorithms. They ignored the real drivers: millions of illegal immigrants increasing demand and federal mandates that jacked up compliance costs for builders. And the algorithms they blame? Those same tools recommend lower prices when inflation and demand cool down.

As grocery bills climbed, Biden blamed “shrinkflation” and greedy grocers and meatpackers. He ignored the real culprits: trillions in wasteful spending from the American Rescue Plan and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

This is the pattern: Jack up costs, then blame someone else. Spin doesn’t fill a gas tank in Jackson or put groceries on the table in Memphis. A press release won’t pay the electric bill in Columbia.

It’s easy to claim every success as earned and every failure as someone else’s fault. But that’s not leadership — it’s childishness. No kindergarten teacher would tolerate it. Voters shouldn’t either.

And they aren’t. Democrats are polling at 29% for a reason.

While the media tracks the stock market, Main Street is what matters. When gas prices jump 60%, hedge fund managers don’t suffer. It’s the single mom in Detroit, the delivery driver in Atlanta, and the grandmother in Baltimore stretching her Social Security check.

This isn’t academic. It’s survival.

Americans are done with excuses. They want results — and President Trump is delivering.

He didn’t just talk tough. He cut gas prices, cooled inflation, and restored energy independence. For communities crushed by elite policy failures, those results aren’t just political. They’re life-changing.

Exclusive: Report Shows Network News’ Maximum Slant On Trump Tariffs

A NewsBusters review shows ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted 62 times more coverage to Trump tariffs and market declines than booming jobs numbers.

Bidenflation Brings Price Hikes To Thanksgiving Feasts For Fourth Year In A Row

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-25-at-8.39.09 AM-e1732545588124-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Screenshot-2024-11-25-at-8.39.09%5Cu202fAM-e1732545588124-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]Americans are still paying more for Thanksgiving basics under Biden than they did before he took office.

Numbers don’t lie, but people do



The federal government will release a large amount of economic data this week, including “advance estimate[s] of Q3 GDP growth, non-farm payrolls, the unemployment rate, and JOLTS job openings,” plus “the ISM Manufacturing PMI, CB consumer confidence, the PCE inflation report, and personal spending and income figures,” as Trading Economics reports.

Much of this data will consist of estimates while the rest likely will be subject to the Biden administration’s economically negative revisions. Typically, positive economic numbers are released with fanfare and praise for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris only to be quietly revised downward into obviously bad news later.

The American people understand the reality of their own experiences.

By then, new numbers — also celebrated as evidence of Biden and Harris’ economic wisdom — shift attention from the disappointing revisions. These new figures are often presented as major improvements over the downwardly revised data, creating the impression of continuous economic growth. But comparing overly optimistic preliminary figures with grimly revised data skews the reality of the economy’s performance.

This game of three-card monte with economic data aims to deceive the public, and the legacy media is happy to play along. While some might plead ignorance, professional reporters and commentators have no excuse not to recognize the manipulation. Meanwhile, Americans face rising costs for groceries, clothing, gas, housing, utilities, and other essentials. Many also want to enjoy activities like dining out, going to the movies, attending concerts, and watching sports. For all of these, they now pay much higher prices than they did three years ago.

Joyful claims that inflation has slowed, while technically true over the past year, don't just lower prices to where they were before. Although many people have received pay raises, those raises are in devalued dollars and generally don’t cover the full impact of inflation since January 2021. Most pay increases fall short of keeping up with inflation both in nominal terms and after adjusting for purchasing power.

Income, sales, use, property, and various excise and service taxes all continue to rise as prices, incomes, and housing values increase in dollar terms, though not in real value. This makes Bidenflation an enormous, hidden tax increase at all levels of government, with prices largely holding at higher levels.

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration’s massive government borrowing in 2021 and 2022, with Harris casting tie-breaking votes on major spending bills, along with the Republicans’ reluctance to push for cuts in 2023 and 2024 drove up inflation and prompted the Federal Reserve to slow the economy to curb dollar devaluation.

This economic tightening has hit most Americans hard as businesses turn to lower-wage immigrant labor, leading to net job losses for native-born American workers.

The dismal result of this miserable game of spend, tax, inflate, stealth-tax, kill jobs for native-born Americans, and repeat has been a decrease in wealth and real income for the great majority of Americans. “The bad news is that over the Biden presidency, earnings are still about 1.3% BELOW inflation,” Unleash Prosperityreports. “It provides further evidence that wage growth under Biden hasn’t kept up with inflation, resulting in a 1.3 percent loss in real earnings.”

The consumer price index has increased by 21% since January 2021.

This economic decline has unfolded even as government agencies have consistently claimed month after month that conditions are improving.

National elections will take place just days after the release of these fantastical figures, with voting already underway in most states. Politicians, reporters, analysts, and others in the media may either be misled by these numbers or pretend to believe them. But the American people understand the reality of their own experiences.

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Basic goods and services cost at least 20 percent more now than they first did when Biden and Harris first entered the White House.

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