President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the dropping stock market is the fault of former President Joe Biden, adding that slow economic growth is from “the Biden overhang” and “has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS.”
Trump made the comment on Truth Social as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all dipped again Wednesday morning. Since Trump’s massive tariff rollout, which began with hitting China, Canada, and Mexico in early February, the Dow Jones has dropped by around 5,000 points, the Nasdaq is down nearly 2,000 points, and the S&P 500 is down around 500 points.
“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th,” Trump said. “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.’ 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!!!”
The president has repeatedly asked Americans to remain patient as his economic and trade policies take effect, but many Americans are still uneasy about how Trump’s tariffs will affect the U.S. economy. On Wednesday, a U.S. Department of Commerce report showed that gross domestic product fell at a 0.3% annualized pace over the first quarter of 2025, CNBC reported. It was the first quarter of negative growth since the first quarter of 2022.
The Commerce Department report pointed to Trump’s tariffs as a reason for the decline in GDP in Q1, as companies tried to get ahead of the tariffs by ramping up imports. The Trump administration’s cut to defense spending also contributed to the GDP slowdown.
In January 2024, Trump took credit for a rising stock market under former President Biden. In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote, “THIS IS THE TRUMP STOCK MARKET BECAUSE MY POLLS AGAINST BIDEN ARE SO GOOD THAT INVESTORS ARE PROJECTING THAT I WILL WIN, AND THAT WILL DRIVE THE MARKET UP.”
The stock market reacted positively last week after the Trump administration hinted that the trade war with China might be coming to an end. Last Tuesday, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned against a prolonged trade war, Trump said the 145% tariff on China “will come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.” As the White House says that numerous countries are ready to make a trade deal, Trump is still trying to bring China to the negotiating table.
