Former President Donald Trump has warned that America’s economy is on track for a bigger disaster than a recession, with his remarks coming shortly before government statistics showed GDP printing negative for the second consecutive quarter, which is a rule-of-thumb definition for a recession.
“Where we’re going now could be a very bad place,” Trump said at a rally in Arizona last week. “We got to get this act in order, we have to get this country going, or we’re going to have a serious problem.”
The former president singled out the collapse in Americans’ real wages, a historically depressed labor force participation rate, and the Democrat push for the Green New Deal that he said would crush economic growth.
“Not recession. Recession’s a nice word. We’re going to have a much bigger problem than recession. We’ll have a depression,” the former president said.
Trump’s remarks came several days before the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released data showing that real U.S. GDP fell by an annualized 0.9 percent in the second quarter after contracting 1.6 percent in the first quarter.
Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth are a common rule-of-thumb definition for a recession, although recessions in the United States are officially declared by a committee of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) using a broader definition than the two-quarter rule.
Vance Ginn, Chief Economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD in an interview that, while officially it’s NBER that calls recessions, the two-quarter rule is “usually how it’s done by a rule of thumb.”
“I think this is definitely recession that we’re in now from these bad policies,” Ginn added, blaming a series of “progressive policies” coming out of the White House and the Democrat-controlled House.
Stagflationary Winds Blowing
In his remarks, Trump also took aim at President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, blaming him for soaring inflation.
“Biden created the worst inflation in 47 years. We’re at 9.1 percent, but the actual number is much, much higher than that,” Trump said.
While the former president didn’t provide his own estimate for the true rate of inflation, an alternative CPI inflation gauge developed by economist John Williams, calculated according to the same methodology used by the U.S. government in the 1980s, puts the figure at 17.3 percent, a 75-year high.
Trump also said that persistently high inflation combined with an economic slowdown has put the country “on the verge of a devastating” spell of stagflation, which is a combination of accelerating prices and slowing economic growth.
Inflation is “going higher and higher all the time,” Trump said, adding that it’s “costing families nearly $6,000 a year, bigger than any tax increase ever proposed other than the tax increase that they want to propose right now.”
In Trump’s first full month in office in February 2017, the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation gauge came in at 2.8 percent in annual terms. While the CPI measure fluctuated during his tenure, the highest it ever reached was 2.9 percent in July 2018, while in his final month in office, January 2021, inflation clocked in at 1.4 percent.
Under Biden, inflation has climbed steadily, soaring 9.1 percent year-over-year in June 2022, a figure not seen in more than 40 years.
‘War on American Energy’
Soaring energy prices have been one of the key contributing factors to inflation, accounting for around half of the headline inflation figure, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In his criticism of Biden’s policies, Trump singled out what he called “Biden’s war on American energy” and blamed it for pushing up gasoline prices.
Since taking office, Biden has taken a number of executive actions targeting the oil industry, including rescinding the Keystone XL pipeline permit, halting new oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands and waters, and ending fossil fuel subsidies by some agencies.
The price of gasoline is around double what it was when Biden took office, with the president blaming various factors, including a lack of refining capacity, the war in Ukraine, and corporate greed.
In a bid to lower prices at the pump, Biden ordered the release of oil reserves from the national strategic reserve, called on U.S. refineries to boost output, and pushed OPEC to pump more crude.
In his speech, Trump said this amounted to “begging” other countries to pump more oil instead of trying to ramp up domestic production.
“We have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country in the world. We are a nation that is consumed by the radical left’s Green New Deal, yet everyone knows that the Green New Deal will lead to our destruction.”
“Just two years ago, we were energy-independent. We were even energy-dominant. The United States is now a beggar for energy.”
Truth be told this country can’t afford any progressive democrats to run America ever again these folk are bad for this country. Never vote for any progressive democrat again.
It’s time to take action against this current ILLEGITIMATE, neo-Marxist regime of a dictatorial government. EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this current ‘Administration’ deserves nothing less than a bullet in the head (for treason). FIND THEM. KILL THEM. DONE!
THE “BIG QUESTION IS”? WILL TRUMP SAVE AMERICA, BY TAKING THE NOMINATION AS, “SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE” IN NOV 22? OR WILL HE CONTINUE TO LET THE DEMORATS HAVE THEIR WAY WITH AMERICA, IN THEIR QUEST OF THE RUINATION OF AMERICA?
JUST LOOK AT THE GOOD HE COULD DO, AS SPEAKER, AND QUICKER, THAN AS PRESIDENT. 1ST ORDER OF THE DAY WOULD BE TO “FIRE” {NO IMPEACHMENT SHOULD BE NECESSARY}}. {{THE UNHOLY 3}}, AND THEY ARE ; BIDEN / KOMOLA / PELOSI, “AND” (MANY MORE TO FOLLOW). TRUMP, WOULD THEN BE NEXT IN LINE FOR THE PRESIDENCY, HURRAH!!!! WHAT A WAY TO START OFF HIS {{REVENGE TOUR}}! CLEAN HOUSE, TO PREPARE FOR HIS NEXT TERM IN OFFICE (THAT HE WAS FRAUDED OUT OF), AS #47. ALTHOUGH I WISH THE {{CORRUPT}} / SUPREME COURT WOULD HAVE STEPPED IN TO HELP IN 2020. ALL THIS CRAP WOLDN’T BE HAPPENING THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, IF PRESIDENT TRUMP WOULD HAVE BEEN PUT INTO THE OFFICE HE WON IN 2020.
WE SURE DO HAVE A USELESS / CORRUPT GOVERNMENT / CONGRESS / AMD ESPECIALLY THE JUICLAL DEPTS WITH THE LEAD BEING THE SUPREME COURT (JESTERS). THEY LOOK LIKE THE “TRIBUNAL OF DEATH”, WITH THOSE BLACK ROBES. WE WISH THEY COULD CHANGE TO A REFRESHING COLOR, LIKIE HOW ABOUT, A RICH PURPLE, OR BLUE, EVEN RED, ANYTHING BUT BLACK, THE KISS OF DEATH?
THERE ARE A FEW THINGS THAT SHOULD BE ABOLISHED; SUCH AS “IMPEACHMENT”, THIS IS STRICTLY USED AS PROTECTING THE ANTI-AMERICAN RASCALS WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT, TO MAKE IT HARDER TO GET RID OF THEM. AND..”.LIFETIME POSITIONS”, HOW “LUDICROUS” IS THIS??? THE WORSE THING THAT COULD HAPPEN, IS TO GIVE SOMEBODY A “PERMANENT” POSITION, ESPECIALLY WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT/JUDICIAL DEPTS. AND…AFTER SEEING WHAT CAN HAPPEN WITHIN A GONE ROGUE / REGIME OF ANTI-AMERICANS, WITH A SENILE ACTING PRESIDENT, “DOLING OUT” “ILLEGAL'” / EXECUTIVE ORDERS, IS THE LAST STRAW. NO ONE MAN SHOULD HAVE THE POWER TO GO OVER THE CONGRESS’ HEAD, BY SIGNING OR PHONING, AN EXECUTIVE ORDER, THE BIDEN REGIME HAS SHOWN US THAT, THIS IS A QUESTIONABLE RIGHT OF A PRESIDENT HAVING THIS POWER. AND THE WASTEFUL SPENDING OF OUR MONIES ON A PRESIDENTIAL MOTORCAE IS AS “LUDICROUS” AS IT GETS. IT COST US, {{WAY TOO MUCH FOR THIS FANFARE}}, TO HAVE THIS PARADE OF 20 CARS, ETC ETC.
WHY DO WE STILL HAVE THE DODD-FRANK BILL, WHICH GOES DIRECTLY AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA? WHY DO WE STILL HAVE AN, “ILLEGAL” / IMMIGRATION” BILL? WHY DO WE STILL HAVE A LOTTERY , AND ANCHOR BABIES LAWS? WHY DO WE STILL HAVE “TIME CHANGES”? WHY DON’T ALL STATES HAVE “DEATH PENALTIES? WHY DOESN’T THE GOVERNMENT /CONGRESS / JUDICIAL DEPTS HAVE TERM LIMITS / MANDATORY RETIREMENTS @ 75? WHY DON’T ALL STATES HAVE, “PICTURE VOTER I.D. CARDS? WHY ISN’T THE VOTING SYSTEM IN THE HAND OF THE “MILITARY”? YES, THERE ARE MANY THINGS TOBE DONE THIS TIME AROUND, WE CERTAINLY HOPE THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP GETS THEM DONE THIS TIME AROUND. AND WHY IN HELL DO WE CALL OURSELVES THE, {{UNITED STATES}}? I SEE NOTHING UNITED HERE!!! THANKS TO OBAMA, ALL I SEE IS “DIVISION”! AND MORE “RACISM” THAN EVEN, THE RDICAL BLACKS, AND THE, LGBTQ / ILLEGALS / AND THE MUSLIMS, ARE KILLING AMERICA, AND WITH NARY A FIGHT FROM TH CONGRESS?????
It will take years.
I have the same answer.
After Biden finishes destroying our country I must wonder if it is still possible to fix it? In any other country the president would have been chased out and hiding in a foreign country. But unfortunately not in the US. The Democrats Socialist party is determined to destroy our country at any cost. It is unfortunate that Jan 6th was a failure to take back our country. The Socialist Dems are gearing up for the next attempt building walls to keep Americans out of the Peoples House. This coming election is the most crucial yet. If the Dems prevail – our country is lost!