{"id":40663,"date":"2025-08-03T16:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40663\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:09:12","slug":"its-trumps-economy-now-and-the-latest-financial-numbers-offer-some-warning-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40663\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Trump’s Economy Now \u2014 And The Latest Financial Numbers Offer Some Warning Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 For all of President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s promises of an economic \u201cgolden age,\u201d a spate of weak indicators<\/a> this week told a potentially worrisome story as the impacts of his policies are coming into focus.<\/p>\n

Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared with last year.<\/p>\n

More than six months into his term, Trump\u2019s blitz of tariff hikes<\/a> and his new tax and spending bill<\/a> have remodeled America\u2019s trading, manufacturing, energy and tax systems to his own liking. He\u2019s eager to take credit for any wins that might occur and is hunting for someone else to blame if the financial situation starts to totter.<\/p>\n

But as of now, this is not the boom the Republican president promised, and his ability to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden<\/a>, for any economic challenges has faded as the world economy hangs on his every word and social media post.<\/p>\n

When Friday\u2019s jobs report turned out to be decidedly bleak, Trump ignored the warnings in the data and fired the head of the agency<\/a> that produces the monthly jobs figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cImportant numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can\u2019t be manipulated for political purposes,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social<\/a>, without offering evidence for his claim. \u201cThe Economy is BOOMING.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that the disappointing numbers are growing pains from the rapid transformation caused by Trump and that stronger growth will return \u2014 or they may be a preview of even more disruption to come.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump walks to board Air Force One, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo\/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s economic plans are a political gamble<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s aggressive use of tariffs, executive actions, spending cuts and tax code changes carries significant political risk if he is unable to deliver middle-class prosperity. The effects of his new tariffs are still several months away from rippling through the economy, right as many Trump allies in Congress will be campaigning in the midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering how early we are in his term, Trump\u2019s had an unusually big impact on the economy already,\u201d said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist at Firehouse Strategies. \u201cThe full inflationary impact of the tariffs won\u2019t be felt until 2026. Unfortunately for Republicans<\/a>, that\u2019s also an election year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House portrayed the blitz of trade frameworks leading up to Thursday\u2019s tariff announcement as proof of his negotiating prowess. The European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and other nations that the White House declined to name agreed that the U.S. could increase its tariffs on their goods without doing the same to American products. Trump simply set rates on other countries that lacked settlements.<\/p>\n

The costs of those tariffs \u2014 taxes paid on imports to the U.S. \u2014 will be most felt by many Americans in the form of higher prices, but to what extent remains uncertain.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the White House and their allies, a key part of managing the expectations and politics of the Trump economy is maintaining vigilance when it comes to public perceptions,\u201d said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist.<\/p>\n

Just 38% of adults approve of Trump\u2019s handling of the economy, according to a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. That\u2019s down from the end of Trump\u2019s first term when half of adults approved of his economic leadership.<\/p>\n

The White House paints a rosier image, seeing the economy emerging from a period of uncertainty after Trump\u2019s restructuring and repeating the economic gains seen in his first term before the pandemic struck.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is implementing the very same policy mix of deregulation, fairer trade, and pro-growth tax cuts at an even bigger scale \u2013 as these policies take effect, the best is yet to come,\u201d White House spokesman Kush Desai said.<\/p>\n

Recent economic reports suggest trouble ahead<\/p>\n

The economic numbers over the past week show the difficulties that Trump might face if the numbers continue on their current path:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Friday\u2019s jobs report showed that U.S. employers have shed 37,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump\u2019s tariff launch<\/a> in April, undermining prior White House claims of a factory revival.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Net hiring has plummeted over the past three months with job gains of just 73,000 in July, 14,000 in June and 19,000 in May \u2014 a combined 258,000 jobs lower than previously indicated. On average last year, the economy added 168,000 jobs a month.<\/p>\n

\u2014 A Thursday inflation report showed<\/a> that prices have risen 2.6% over the year that ended in June, an increase in the personal consumption expenditures price index from 2.2% in April. Prices of heavily imported items, such as appliances, furniture, and toys and games, jumped from May to June.<\/p>\n

\u2014 On Wednesday, a report on gross domestic product \u2014 the broadest measure of the U.S. economy \u2014 showed that it grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3% during the first half of the year, down sharply from 2.8% growth last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy\u2019s just kind of slogging forward,\u201d said Guy Berger, senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute, which studies employment trends. \u201cYes, the unemployment rate\u2019s not going up, but we\u2019re adding very few jobs. The economy\u2019s been growing very slowly. It just looks like a \u2018meh\u2019 economy is continuing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Donald Trump delivers remarks alongside Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as they tour the Federal Reserve\u2019s $2.5 billion headquarters renovation project on July 24, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Fed attacks could unleash more inflation<\/p>\n

Trump has sought to pin the blame for any economic troubles on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates even though doing so could generate more inflation.<\/p>\n

Trump has publicly backed two Fed governors, Christoper Waller and Michelle Bowman, for voting for rate cuts at Wednesday\u2019s meeting. But their logic is not what the president wants to hear: They were worried, in part, about a slowing job market.<\/p>\n

But this is a major economic gamble being undertaken by Trump and those pushing for lower rates under the belief that mortgages will also become more affordable as a result and boost homebuying activity.<\/p>\n

His tariff policy has changed repeatedly over the last six months, with the latest import tax numbers serving as a substitute for what the president announced in April, which provoked a stock market sell-off. It might not be a simple one-time adjustment as some Fed board members and Trump administration officials argue.<\/p>\n

Trump didn\u2019t listen to the warnings on \u2018universal\u2019 tariffs<\/p>\n

Of course, Trump can\u2019t say no one warned him about the possible consequences of his economic policies.<\/p>\n

Biden, then the outgoing president, did just that in a speech last December<\/a> at the Brookings Institution, saying the cost of the tariffs would eventually hit American workers and businesses.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all imported goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,\u201d Biden said. \u201cI believe this approach is a major mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 For all of President Donald Trump\u2019s promises of an economic \u201cgolden age,\u201d a spate of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,2490,164,4688,488,5071],"class_list":["post-40663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-tariffs","tag-u-s-news","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}