An economist and ally of President Donald Trump has said Americans are “going to have to suffer” after seeing economic forecasts which project negative job numbers.
Why It Matters
The president ran his campaign on a promise of bringing down prices on “Day One;” but Larry Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, has acknowledged that goods are projected to stay expensive, and jobs are expected to be sparse.
What To Know
Kudlow spoke on his Fox Business show Kudlow about the poor economic projections for February, placing the blame on Joe Biden’s administration for high costs and low job prospects.
The economist, who now advises Republican strategy as vice chair of the American First Policy Institute, said that there is “bad news” for the economy ahead, but that has “nothing to do with Trump.”
Two reasons goods are still so expensive are bird flu and the recent tariffs imposed on Chinese, Mexican and Canadian imports.
While bird flu was certainly an issue during the Biden administration, after Trump entered office, the U.S. Department of Agriculture fired scientists working on prevention. The outbreak has decimated the number of egg-laying hens and hit the poultry industry hard.
While Trump has claimed that tariffs will ensure that goods are made in America again, in the short-term they are projected to make goods significantly more expensive across the country.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) cost-cutting measures and the mass-firing of federal employees are said to be contributing factors as to why the job market is predicted to be flat. The federal government is the largest employer in the nation.
A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found that 46 percent of Americans believe that Trump is changing the economy “for the worse,” while 42 percent of people think he’s changing it for the better. Eleven percent think he has not provided any “real” change yet.
Kudlow said that Trump is not responsible for the current state of the economy, yet when the president announced his new tariffs to Congress, the stock market started to drop in real time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,300 points in two days amid the trade announcements.
Shares in U.S. companies Ford, GM, Target, and Best Buy dropped after the companies had to announce their prices will rise due to tariffs.
Trump’s new 25-percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, his additional 10-percent tariffs on Chinese goods, and the retaliatory charges placed by those countries on American goods, will likely lead to more expensive vehicles, beer, houses, fuel, electronics, and some agricultural products.
What People Are Saying
Larry Kudlow on Fox Business: “My generic point here with respect to affordability and the economy is we’re going to have to suffer through some bad news. This is nothing to do with Trump. Trump’s program’s not in yet. And I’ve got people on the left who are blaming Trump. How can you blame Trump when he wasn’t president when these seeds were planted?”
Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday: “Trump promised a better economy, but all he’s delivering is higher prices and chaos. He promised to stand up to foreign adversaries, but all he’s done is bow to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. He promised to drain the swamp, but it’s overflowing with billionaires cashing in.”
