The United States economy has experienced the worst quarter since 2022 after President Donald Trump’s policy changes.
According to CNN, the Commerce Department on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, revealed that the gross domestic product (GDP) of the US, which measures the total value of goods and services produced in the country, shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter of the year.
The sharp slowdown in the GDP from the fourth quarter’s 2.4% rate is dubbed worse than the predicted 0.8% growth.
The Trump administration over the past few months has been involved in a tariff war with several trade partners and neighbouring countries, which has escalated an economic tension between the US and China. Economists believe that efforts to reshape global trade will increase inflation in the country and could even trigger recession.
Trump believes economic reverses have no link with tariffs
Meanwhile, the Republican president is still optimistic that the economy will “bloom” as the US gets rid of former president Joe Biden.
He wrote in a post on Truth Social, “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 Commerce Department noted that the economy declined in the beginning of the years because people bought more imports to avoid tariffs while the government spent less.
Notably, as per the report released by the department, imports skyrocketed from -1.9% in the fourth quarter to 41.3% in the first three months of the year. Meanwhile, exports registered at a 1.8% rate.
