Trump is blaming Biden for a weakening economy. Is that fair?

Markets are on the fritz, and investor sentiment has slumped into “extreme fear” territory.

Markets are on the fritz and investor sentiment has slumped into “extreme fear” territory. Consumer confidence readings have cratered and surveys show a sharp turnabout in Americans’ feelings about their future financial well-being. Any positive reports are described by economists as the “calm before the storm.” The common denominator is pure and utter uncertainty — particularly about just how President Donald Trump’s sweeping policy actions could shake out, economists say. However, when the topics of the economy, volatile markets, shaken confidence and sudden recession fears have been broached with Trump, he’s hammered on familiar notes: That the Biden administration left him with an economic situation that was “catastrophic,” a “nightmare,” “horrible,” or “damaged.” Still, data aside, the economy didn’t feel great to all Americans who suffered through the highest inflation in decades, and those sour feelings helped send Trump back to the White House for a second term. Such claims have become a hair-pull for economists, statisticians, academics and fact-checkers alike: By most gold-standard measures, President Joe Biden handed Trump a booming economy. And, if anything, the economy was ripe for a resurgence in early 2025 under Trump, economists have told CNN. “The economy was bad under Biden and that was reflected in the polls last year; but inflation and every other economic indicator had more or less stabilized when President Trump took office,” Jai Kedia, an economist and research fellow at the Cato Institute, told CNN in an interview.