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As economy shrinks, Trump plays the blame game

Rebecca Morin   Paste BN

Hi! Rebecca Morin here. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been trying to cut back on snacks like chips. And apparently, it’s a trend.

Trump’s economic agenda tested as economy shrinks

The economy isn’t picking up. In fact, it slowed down earlier this year. President Donald Trump is blaming his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, after a report showed the U.S. economy shrunk in the first several months of this year – the first decline in the U.S. economy in three years. U.S. stocks dropped in response to the new report. Trump said the dip is “Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s” and that his sweeping tariffs will bring a boom to the economy, even as experts have warned the tariffs could lead to a recession. More on Trump’s response to the GDP report.

  • So what did the report on the economy say? U.S. gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services, shrank at an 0.3% annual rate in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That’s down from a 2.4% increase at the end of last year. Stocks slid early Wednesday as a result of the report.
  • A surge of imports in early 2025 ahead of Trump’s sweeping tariffs caused the GDP decline by increasing the trade deficit. Trade data from January showed that the U.S. imported more goods than in any other month since the Census began tracking the numbers in 2002, in anticipation of Trump's sweeping tariffs. The White House called the import influx and “anomaly.” 

A politics pit stop

Trump administration bans chosen names at some federal agencies

In President Trump’s latest move to reverse protections for transgender people, employees of the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health are being told to use their legal names in official systems. The new policies affect transgender employees who use a name that aligns with their gender identity rather than the sex they were assigned at birth. But it’s also affecting married women who choose to go by their maiden name at work, and people who go by middle names, initials, or shorten their first names, for example from James to Jim. What to know about the policy.

Trump defends first 100-days agenda amid sliding polls

To mark his 100-days in office that has been marked by a slip in his approval ratings, President Donald Trump on Tuesday tried to sell his agenda to the American people at a Warren, Michigan rally, his first domestic trip since the inauguration that wasn't to one of his own properties. There, he defended his efforts on tariffs, immigration and DOGE and promised much more to come. From saying he wasn’t “under the thumb” of billionaire Elon Musk to teasing a possible 2028 presidential run, which would be unconstitutional. Here are the takeaways from Trump’s Michigan rally.

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