Wow, that was quick. The Washington Post has already taken to blaming President Donald Trump for America’s economic woes, except the new data they’re using as the basis of their argument reflected the disastrous Biden economy, not Trump’s.
GDP growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 2.3 percent, which was noticeably slower than expected and put a dent into a lot of the media brouhaha surrounding how turbo-tastic Bidenomics supposedly was. But Post economic reporter Abha Bhattarai, desperate to spin this as somehow Trump’s fault, blamed the quirk on the economy getting the heebie-jeebies over his policies, before he even took office: “U.S. economy slowed at the end of 2024 as households and businesses braced for new tariffs.”
Now — and stay with us here — The Post was perhaps too caught up in its latest bout with Trump Derangement Syndrome that it didn’t realize that Q4 covered the period between October-December, which means the reading included data before anyone even knew Trump was going to win the 2024 election.
But Bhattarai, trapped in oblivion, spun the story as the consequence of fears over Biden’s, er, glorious economic legacy being potentially ripped to shreds by Trump’s policies:
While the economy has been incredibly resilient, even in the face of elevated interest rates, it faces a new round of uncertainties that could hobble growth this year. The Trump administration has moved quickly to freeze federal hiring and curb immigration. It has also said it plans to issue sweeping new tariffs on some of the country’s largest trade partners, which could happen as early as this weekend. Economists say all of those measures are likely to cut into economic growth and create new hurdles for businesses and households.
Of course, Bhattarai had no problem singing the praises of a still slowing economy in October 2024 after third quarter GDP data was released when she twisted that story as an “expansion” of a “bustling” Biden economy. Despite growth also moderating in the third quarter to 2.8 percent from 3 percent the prior quarter, Bhattarai was adamant at that time that the data offered a “snapshot of an economy that’s been able to withstand policy swings and political uncertainty.”
So after Trump was elected, the aforementioned “snapshot of an economy that’s been able to withstand policy swings and political uncertainty” no longer applies, right Bhattarai?
Apparently so. Bhattarai turned to Zonda Chief Economist Ali Wolf, who bleated to her that “‘There’s no shortage of wild cards to watch in 2025.’” He continued: “‘The policies implemented by the incoming administration could have a profound impact on the economy.’”
Here’s the problem: From October to Jan. 20, Biden was still in office and his extreme regulatory and spending policies were still in effect, which means that none of Trump’s policies were implemented during that period.
That’s not even enough time for Trump’s team to pass gas before they sit down in their new office chairs.
What appeared nowhere in Bhattarai’s report was that in conjunction with consumer spending, Fox Business noted that the latest GDP readings were also a result of “government spending.” In fact, the word "debt" doesn't even appear once. If she did concede that factoid and uncercut herself, she would open up a can of worms. Much of the GDP growth she celebrated under Biden was a direct result of a debt bomb courtesy of his administration’s obsession with spendaholic monkey business, essentially pumping the economy into a sugar high. In fact, government debt represents a stupid 123 percent of GDP.
Even New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker, conceded in a piece lecturing voters on the virtues of Bidenomics that the national debt now “represents a larger share of the economy than it has in generations, other than during the pandemic itself.”
Did Bhattaria bother to note any of this $36,000,000,000,000 context? Nada. Zip. Zilch.
