On September 25, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris delivered a speech to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in which she discussed her plans to invest in industrial output and help the middle class and called out some of former President Donald Trump’s failures on the economy. She was also interviewed by MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle about her economic agenda.
Vice President Harris’ speech came amid her recent endorsement by over 400 economists and former policy makers praising “her vision for the American economy” and the release of a new study spelling Trump's disastrous economic policies. However, after Harris’ speech and interview, Fox News continued to defend Trump’s plans for the economy.
More than 400 economists and policymakers recently endorsed Harris, and a new study shows Trump would be disastrous for the economy
Economists and policymakers, including 16 Nobel Prize winners, have been sounding the alarm that Trump’s plans for tariffs, mass deportations, and reducing the independence of the Federal Reserve would reignite cooling inflation, arguing that Harris would be better for the economy than her opponent. A September 24 letter from more than 400 economists and former policymakers further emphasized this argument, as first reported by CNN:
“The choice in this election is clear: between failed trickle-down economic policies that benefit the few and economic policies that provide opportunity for all,” the endorsement document reads. “It is a choice between inequity, economic injustice, and uncertainty with Donald Trump or prosperity, opportunity, and stability with Kamala Harris, a choice between the past and the future.”
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Several notable economists threw their weight behind Harris, including University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers and Claudia Goldin, who won the Nobel Prize last year for tracking women’s labor participation and the evolving wage gap.
“With Kamala Harris in the White House, workers, families, and businesses can be confident that they have a president who will work relentlessly to build a strong, pro-growth economy for all Americans,” reads the endorsement, which was also signed by former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and ex-Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, both Democrats.
The endorsement letter also cited experts’ warnings about Trump’s policies: “Donald Trump’s proposed policies risk reigniting inflation and threaten the United States’ global standing and domestic economic stability. Nonpartisan researchers have predicted that if Donald Trump successfully enacts his agenda, it will lower GDP growth and increase the unemployment rate.”
This coalescence of support for Harris and dire warning about Trump was followed just two days later by a new study from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which, according to CNN, finds that “Trump’s promises would spike inflation and wipe out jobs.” The study concluded that, at best, Trump’s policies would lead to a decline in employment by 2.7% in 2028; inflation climbing to 6% by 2026, and 2.8% lower economic growth as measured by GDP by the end of a second Trump term. At worst, the study found:
- Trump’s policies would lead to 9% lower employment, inflation would skyrocket to 9.3%, and GDP would be almost 10% lower.
Warwick McKibbin, a researcher who worked on the study, told CNN that Trump’s “mass deportations would cause a Covid-like ‘shock’ to the supply of workers.” Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi told CNN that a “recession in the year after the increase in tariffs would be a serious threat.”
Fox is still arguing that Trump would be better for the economy and defending his universal tariff proposals
- A Fox panel had “a little bit of economic fun” to show Trump would be better for the economy than Harris by comparing past Amazon purchase prices to current ones, without accounting for increased wages. Fox anchor Trace Gallagher teased the panel, saying Harris was “claiming today that Trump's economic agenda would hurt working people, but Donald Trump was president before.” He credited a viewer with providing the idea to “fact check” Harris “on who is actually better for the middle class” by taking “a look back at your Amazon account's order history page.” [Fox News, Fox News At Night, 9/25/24, 9/25/24]
- On Hannity, Project 2025 contributor Stephen Moore said, “I laugh when I hear some of my liberal friends say if Trump is president he's going to make inflation worse.” Moore then either misspoke or grossly exaggerated the current inflation rate (which is at 2.5%, lower than at some points in the Trump presidency), saying: “No, it was Biden who took a one and a half percent inflation rate and took it up to 9%, and now it's 20%.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/25/24; Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9/11/24; Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed 9/26/24]
- Fox contributor Mary Katharine Ham: “The problem for her is that voters, when they hear these things from her, have lived the two administrations. They lived the Trump administration, and they lived the Biden-Harris administration.” Host Laura Ingraham also promoted Trump’s proposed tariffs during the segment. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 9/25/24]
- Fox host Jesse Watters defended Trump’s trade policies against Harris’ criticism. After airing part of Harris’ MSNBC interview, during which she criticized Trump’s “across the board” tariffs, Watters said: “Trump's not serious about trade? He's deadly serious. He won a trade war with China, passed the new NAFTA deal, signed new trade deals with South Korea and Japan. He used tariffs to bring countries to the negotiating table, and we had a great economy with no inflation.” (Trump’s trade war was actually a disaster, and he left behind a collapsed economy due to his leadership failures during the COVID-19 pandemic.) [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/25/24; Axios, 2/1/21; The Associated Press, 5/20/24; The Washington Post, 12/19/20]
