{"id":527148,"date":"2026-03-08T17:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527148\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T17:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T17:28:07","slug":"trumps-roaring-economy-meets-a-rough-start-to-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/527148\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s \u2018roaring\u2019 economy meets a rough start to the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> promised that 2026 would be a bumper year for economic growth, but instead it has kicked off with job losses<\/a>, rising gasoline prices<\/a> and more uncertainty about America\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

In his State of the Union address<\/a> less than two weeks ago, the Republican president confidently told the country: \u201cThe roaring economy is roaring like never before.\u201d The latest batch of data on jobs, pump prices and the stock market suggests that Trump\u2019s roar has started to sound far more like a whimper.<\/p>\n

There is a gap between the boom that Trump has predicted and the volatile results he has produced \u2014 one that could set the tone in this year\u2019s midterm elections as he tries to defend his party\u2019s majorities in the House and Senate. With Trump\u2019s tariffs drama ongoing<\/a>, the war in Iran<\/a> has suddenly created inflationary concerns regarding oil and natural gas. To the White House, it is still early in the year and stronger growth is coming.<\/p>\n

No signs of a jobs boom<\/p>\n

\u201cWOW! The Golden Age of America is upon us!!!\u201d Trump posted on social media Feb. 11 after the monthly jobs report showed gains of 130,000 jobs in January.<\/p>\n

Since then, the job market has evaporated in worrisome ways.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s employment report showed job losses of 92,000 in February. The January and December figures were revised downward, with December swinging to a loss of 17,000 jobs. Monthly data can be rocky, but a trend has emerged that shows an enduring weakness. Without the health care sector, the economy would have shed roughly 202,000 jobs since Trump became president in January 2025. Still, his administration notes that construction job gains outside of the housing sector point to future hiring growth.<\/p>\n

Trump often brags that jobs are going to people born in the United States, rather than to immigrants. But the latest report punctured some of that argument. <\/p>\n

The unemployment rate for people born in the U.S. has climbed over the past 12 months to 4.7% from 4.4%. This means a greater share of the people who Trump said would get jobs because of his immigration crackdown are, in fact, searching for work.<\/p>\n

Prices at the pump are going up<\/p>\n

\u201cSlashing energy costs is among the most important actions we can take to bring down prices for American consumers,\u201d Trump said in a February speech in Texas just before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. \u201cBecause when you cut the cost of energy, you really cut — you just cut the cost of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president has repeatedly told Americans that keeping gas costs low would be key to defeating inflation. He has talked up the decline, citing figures that were far below the national average to assure the public that driving was getting cheaper.<\/p>\n

But the strikes against Iran<\/a> that began Feb. 28 have, for the moment, crushed that narrative. Prices at the pump have jumped 19% over the past month to a national average of $3.45, according to AAA. The investment bank Goldman Sachs warned in an analyst note that, if higher oil prices persist, inflation could rise from its 2.4% reading in January to 3% by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The administration is banking on plans to contain any energy price increases, essentially betting that either the conflict will end shortly or the administration can succeed in getting more tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump advisers on Sunday sought to assure anxious Americans that surging fuel prices are a short-term problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never know exactly the time frame of this,\u201d Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union. \u201cBut in the worst case, this is a weeks, this is not a months thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stocks are off their highs<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we set the all-time record in history with the Dow going to 50,000,\u201d Trump said Thursday at the White House.<\/p>\n

This frequently repeated talking point has grown stale. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, one of Trump\u2019s preferred measures of success, has dropped 5% over the past month. Stocks are up during his presidency, just as they were previously when Democrat Joe Biden was president. The recent decline could be reversed if the war with Iran ends and companies see solid profits over the next year and beyond. The recent dip, however, should be a warning sign as the administration has stressed the importance of more people investing in the stock market through vehicles such as \u201cTrump accounts\u201d for children.<\/p>\n

The stock market has become a barometer of how people feel about the economy, with stock investors tending to have more confidence and those without money in the markets being more pessimistic. <\/p>\n

Joanna Hsu, the director of the University of Michigan\u2019s surveys of consumers, noted that in February a \u201csizable\u201d increase in sentiment among people owning stocks \u201cwas fully offset by a decline among consumers without stock holdings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Productivity is up, but workers aren\u2019t benefiting<\/p>\n

Trump can point to a win in that the economy has become more productive \u2014 generating more value for each hour of work. That is a positive sign for long-term growth in the U.S. and a reflection of its strong tech sector.<\/p>\n

Business sector labor productivity climbed 2.8% in the fourth quarter of last year, the Labor Department reported Thursday. But the challenge is that the gains might not be spread to workers in the form of higher pay as labor\u2019s share of income last year fell to the lowest level on record, noted Mike Konczal, senior director of policy and research at the Economic Security Project, a nonprofit aligned with liberal economic issues.<\/p>\n

Economy grew at a faster pace under Biden<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the Biden administration, America was plagued by the nightmare of stagflation, meaning low growth and high inflation \u2014 a recipe for misery, failure and decline,\u201d Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.<\/p>\n

The scoreboard tells a far different story, one that makes Biden\u2019s track record in 2024 look better than Trump\u2019s performance last year. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.8% pace during Biden\u2019s last year, compared with 2.2% under Trump in 2025.<\/p>\n

As for inflation, the primary measure used by the Federal Reserve is the personal consumption expenditures price index. It was 2.6% in both 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

Trump has staked his economic argument on doing better than Biden. But while he has avoided the inflation spikes that haunted Biden\u2019s presidency, he has not delivered stronger growth or more hiring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump promised that 2026 would be a bumper year for economic growth, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,262166,9285,2490,5931,164,32512,5929,5927,482,22344,795,5465,5575,206980,262167,10522,11973,1788,107012,262168,84,29930,8987],"class_list":{"0":"post-527148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-christopher-wright","12":"tag-district-of-columbia","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-economic-indicators","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-energy-industry","17":"tag-federal-reserve-system","18":"tag-financial-markets","19":"tag-general-news","20":"tag-government-and-politics","21":"tag-inc","22":"tag-inflation","23":"tag-iran","24":"tag-iran-war","25":"tag-joanna-hsu","26":"tag-jobs-and-careers","27":"tag-joe-biden","28":"tag-labor","29":"tag-midterm-elections","30":"tag-mike-konczal","31":"tag-politics","32":"tag-the-goldman-sachs-group","33":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527148","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=527148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}