President Donald Trump continues to claim that he inherited a “horrible” economy from former President Joe Biden. But in fact, the United States’ unemployment rate in December 2024, Biden’s last full month in office, was only 4.1 percent (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). And the U.S. enjoyed record-low unemployment earlier in Biden’s term.
Trump is promising major economic growth, but Paul Krugman and other economists, along with business leaders, fear that his economic policies — from aggressive tariffs against U.S. allies to gutting the federal workforce to mass layoffs of federal workers — will push the United States into a recession. And the Dow Jones, according to CNN, fell by 890 points on March 10.
Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell addressed the worries of economists, business leaders and consumers during a Wednesday, March 12 appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” And she laid out a variety of reasons why Trump’s policies are giving them major anxiety.
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When host Joe Scarborough noted how badly the stock market has been tanking, Rampell — who MSNBC recently hired as a weekend host — replied, “It’s just insane. I cannot fathom why Trump is doing this, except for the fact that: (A) He’s in love with tariffs. He’s a tariff man. And (B): [It’s] worth reminding people that the two people who are egging Trump on to wage trade wars against our friends and allies are people…. who used to work for the steel industry. The U.S. trade representative represented Cleveland-Cliffs, a major steel company in the United States.”
Rampell cited “Trump’s trade guru,” Peter Navarro, as another negative influence on his economic policies.
The Post columnist told Scarborough and fellow “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski, “So, he’s getting bad advice, I guess. Even if he got good advice, I’m not sure he would follow it. But clearly, markets are very unhappy with how things are going, as they should be.”
Although Trump often attacks Biden’s economic policies, Rampell noted that he “inherited quite a good economy, actually” from the previous administration.
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“Trump actually inherited very strong economic growth, low unemployment, cooling — if not quite low enough — inflation,” Rampell explained. “A lot of very good trends. And the best thing he could have done when he came into office, as I have said many times, is just nothing at all. You know, go play golf, take credit for the gains he was already inheriting. And instead, of course, he is wreaking havoc.”
Rampell continued, “He’s not only creating a lot more uncertainty and potentially higher costs for businesses, which will then be passed along, at least in part, to consumers. He’s also threatening to deport half of the agricultural labor force, which also threatens to increase food prices. He’s leaning on the Federal Reserve. I think this is sort of the sleeper story of this year. He did this last time, of course, when he was president. It would be very bad now for him to be seen as strongarming the Fed, which has historically, (been) politically independent (and) needs that political independence for its credibility…. And so, a lot of reasons to think he’s messing up a very nicely wrapped gift that he had gotten.”
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Watch the full video below or at this link.
