To mark his first 100 days in office — “100 Days of Greatness,” he called it — President Donald Trump threw himself a celebration rally in the swing state of Michigan on Tuesday, declaring he has returned America to a “golden age.”

“The arena was surrounded by banners that read, ‘Investing in America,’ ‘Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!,’ ‘The Golden Age,’ ‘Buy American, Hire American’ and ‘The American Dream is Back,'” The Guardian reported. “Trump’s supporters held signs with slogans such as: ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘Golden Age of America.'”

On Wednesday, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the American economy shrank in the first three months of 2025, the first time it has done so in nearly three years.

READ MORE: ‘Prices Go Up’: Economist Mocks Treasury Secretary’s ‘Empty Shelves’ Position

“Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2025 (January, February, and March), according to the advance estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2024, real GDP increased 2.4 percent.”

Get details about how the U.S. economy performed in the first quarter of 2025:https://t.co/qHGf5n47pp pic.twitter.com/figOjv6N86

— BEA News (@BEA_News) April 30, 2025

Economic experts had predicted 3% GDP growth for the first quarter, (some more, some less, but in that neighborhood) before Trump’s tariffs.

Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo breaks the news to her viewers that GDP contracted in the first quarter:pic.twitter.com/LiGaS92x4l

— David Badash (@davidbadash) April 30, 2025

Economists and financial experts are pointing to President Donald Trump’s policies, including his tariff war, as the reason for the contraction.

“Real GDP down. Consumption down. Prices up. It’s very easy to criticize what is happening right in front of your eyes when you’re not in a woke cult,” observed Spencer Hakimian, founder and chief investment officer of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management.

Hakimian pinned the blame for the economy contracting directly on Trump’s policies.

And pointing to the BEA’s numbers, Hakimian added, “Welcome to the recession.”

While the official “we are in a recession” declaration has not yet been made, some are doing so already, given the multiple forecasts predicting a recession, and some saying a recession is the current best possible outcome America (and possibly the global economy) will see this year.

Conservative commentator David Frum of The Atlantic responded to the economic news.

“Trump pushed the US economy into decline by his ignorance and malice, enabled and abetted by advisers who were variously obnoxious, stupid, cowardly, and/or crazy,” said Frum, a former George W. Bush speechwriter.

Despite the declarations of experts, President Trump quickly denied responsibility for any economic pain, and, appeared to not understand the issue.

Forty-three  minutes after the economic news — a contraction of gross domestic product — had been announced, Trump declared the “stock market” problem was not his but his predecessor’s.

“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” the President claimed on Truth Social. “I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”

The issue is not the stock market—although the markets tanked upon news of an economic contraction—but the actual economy.

READ MORE: ‘Great Jobs of the Future’ Are Generations of Family Factory Work Says Commerce Secretary

“CEOs of major retail giants warned last week that prices would rise and shelves would soon fall empty if the president didn’t reverse course,” The Daily Beast reported Thursday. “The S&P 500 is down 8 percent since Trump’s inauguration—its worst run during a president’s first 100 days in office in more than 50 years. Some financial analysts worry the U.S. is heading toward recession.”

The President appears to be in denial.

During his first 100 days interview with ABC News, which aired Tuesday evening, senior national correspondent Terry Moran told Trump tourism is down.

Trump refused to believe him, despite the facts that prove this have been freely available for weeks.

Economist Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy, posted charts showing tourism “cratering,” along with video of Trump insisting tourism is up.

https://t.co/VFn7LMWtaR pic.twitter.com/Ee9QfjByfs

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) April 30, 2025

Despite all the economic data and expert predictions, despite what we now see as an economic contraction, and some say a looming recession, President Trump is steadfast in his position.

ABC’s Moran told the President, “with the economy, the number one issue for so many people, for just about everybody. It — it’s one of the main reasons that you’re back in this office. And now we have this trade war with China that — that Moody’s and other analysts say is gonna cost American families thousands of more dollars per year. And there is a lot of concern out there. People are worried, even some people who voted for you, sayin’, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ So how do you answer those concerns?”

“Well,” Trump replied, “they did sign up for it, actually.”

MORAN: Even some people who voted for you are saying, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ So how do you answer those concerns?

TRUMP: Well, they did sign up for it actually pic.twitter.com/PqfmqlmSeJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2025

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Lying Again’: Hegseth Ripped for Ending ‘Woke Biden Initiative’ Trump Signed Into Law

Image via Reuters

A prominent economist is challenging U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s claims about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Americans’ ability to access goods in stores and online.

Bessent, a hedge fund manager and Trump donor and fundraiser, was asked on Monday if he’s worried about the possibility of empty shelves.

“Not at present,” Bessent told Fox News. “We have some great retailers. I assume they preordered.”

Appearing to mock Bessent, Wolfers paraphrased the Treasury Secretary: “If I hurt the American consumer enough, we’ll see how quickly the Chinese want to deescalate.”

READ MORE: ‘Great Jobs of the Future’ Are Generations of Family Factory Work Says Commerce Secretary

“Well,” Wolfers continued, “I’m not sure which side’s meant to be looking out for us right now,” he told MSNBC’s Katy Tur.

“Bessent might be right to say that shelves aren’t going to be empty,” Wolfers explained, “but the reason that would be is, if we have less stuff coming into the country and we’re not making more stuff, the only way that the shelves don’t empty is if the prices go up.”

“So, I think at this point, any economist is forecasting, either the shelves empty or the prices go up a lot. I’m actually in camp prices go up, but these are two pretty terrible flavors.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Wolfers appeared to mock several top members of the Trump administration.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick “says he’s relying on Bessent to get a deal done with China, but on Sunday Bessent said he didn’t know whether or how often Trump has been calling Chinese President Xi, and Trump said he’s calling, but Xi said he’s not getting through,” Wolfers explained before asking, “Is anyone working on this?”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Here’s what Treasury Secretary Bessent is saying: “If I hurt the American consumer enough, we’ll see how quickly the Chinese want to escalate.” pic.twitter.com/6aPiUxpx8h

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) April 29, 2025

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Image via Shutterstock

In the wake of President Donald Trump moving to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, his Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, says the “great jobs of the future” will be generations upon generations of Americans working in factories.

“It’s time to train people, not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future,” Lutnick, a billionaire, told CNBC on Tuesday afternoon (video below). “You know, this is the new model, where you work in these kind of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here.”

“You know, we let the auto plants go overseas,” continued Lutnick, the former president and chief executive officer of the major financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald. “Right now, you should see an auto plant. It’s highly automated, but the people, the four, five thousand people who work there, they are trained to take care of those robotic arms. They’re trained to keep the air conditioned system.”

The Commerce Secretary began by saying that the “key is, where are you gonna find the people to work here, right?”

READ MORE: ‘Lying Again’: Hegseth Ripped for Ending ‘Woke Biden Initiative’ Trump Signed Into Law

“You go to the community colleges, and you train people, so all the community colleges around here,” he added, “all these community colleges here are training people right now, technicians, and these are really good paying jobs.”

Lutnick described the starting pay for these jobs as in the $70,000 to $90,000 range.

Professor of Economics Justin Wolfers asked, “Do you think Lutnick wants *his* kids and grandkids spending their lives in a manufacturing plant, or are these just aspirations for ‘other people’?”

Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic & Policy Research, declared, “It’s amazing how off the wall this guy is. Does Lutnick really know nothing about the economy?”

Media Matters for America’s Matthew Gertz added, “‘People don’t want upward mobility for their kids and grandkids’ is an interesting take from a billionaire whose parents were college professors.”

“This isn’t how modern manufacturing works,” noted podcaster Fred Wellman. “They don’t even turn on the lights. These lunatics are disconnected from reality.”

READ MORE: Just 100 Days in and Trump White House Is Already Prepping for Impeachment: Report

Philosopher and theologian Jay Mallow observed: “Man who has never worked a factory job ignores the historical reality that entire generations worked factory jobs so their children WOULDN’T work those same jobs.”

“The reason those jobs were once so desirable was because the workers had unions and collective bargaining,” wrote economics journalist Patrick W. Watson. “Lutnick and Trump have no interest in restoring that part.”

CNN’s Rachel Sklar, commenting on Lutnick’s remarks, said simply, “You first.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Lutnick: “It’s time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future. This is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here. We let the auto plants go… pic.twitter.com/kDqjMPTUvh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 29, 2025

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Image via Reuters