Even though President Donald Trump’s administration has taken multiple actions that have effectively weakened the economy, Fox News is helping Trump prepare to place the blame for worsening economic indicators on former President Joe Biden, who handed off a strong and stable economy to Trump less than two months ago.
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As Trump wrecks the economy, Fox News pivots to blaming Biden
Fox personalities are blaming worsening economic indicators on the previous administration to absolve Trump of responsibility
Written by Zachary Pleat & Craig Harrington
Research contributions from Lis Power
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Trump reportedly plans to blame Biden for his own economic turmoil
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- Time: “A White House official tells TIME to expect more of” Trump blaming Biden for the Trump “administration’s woes” during his March 4 address to Congress. Time further quoted the Trump official as saying: “He’s going to speak directly to the American people about the challenges he inherited from the previous administration.” [Time, 3/3/25]
- On Fox, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed that Trump will highlight some of his “accomplishments” and “talk about his plans to fix the economic mess that was created and left for him by Joe Biden and his administration.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/4/25]
- Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox that “the economy is in good shape right now because the Trump cavalry is riding to the rescue,” but that “ Biden inflation” remains a problem. [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 3/4/25]
- On Fox, counselor to the president Alina Habba said of economic concerns: “I think honestly the biggest challenge we have is that these are Biden's economic numbers — we’re in the first quarter, so we’re dealing with the repercussions of what was — and we're trying to fix it as quickly as humanly possible.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 3/4/25]
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Fox joins in blaming Biden for Trump’s self-inflicted damage to the economy
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- Fox contributor Newt Gingrich: “Just as Reagan inherited Carter's bad economy, President Trump inherited Biden's bad economy.” Gingrich added, “We are sliding towards a recession.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 3/3/25]
- Fox Business host Larry Kudlow: “Right now the economy is doing poorly. This is still the Biden economy.” Co-host and Fox Business anchor Cheryl Casone added that Trump has to “remind Americans what” he “was just handed by Joe Biden.” Kudlow concluded: “The Biden economy is sinking rapidly.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 3/3/25]
- Fox anchor Sandra Smith on Federal Reserve data indicating an economic slowdown: “This is still the hangover from the Biden administration.” Fox Business host Brian Brenberg added: “The Trump administration is trying to unravel an economy that was absolutely tied up in government spending and government hiring — which is totally unsustainable because it is nobody's money but the taxpayers’ money.” [Fox News, America Reports, 3/3/25]
- Fox host Laura Ingraham: “Trump is trying mightily” to turn around a “weak” economy. Ingraham said the economy is “weighed down with $36 trillion and counting in debt,” calling it “weakness.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/3/25]
- Fox guest Stephen Moore: “These numbers that have come in so far are really the Biden numbers. ... This is a bit of the Biden hangover.” After Democratic strategist Robert Wolf listed a number of economic indicators that have quickly soured in Trump's first few weeks in office, anchor Sandra Smith and Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore pivoted to blaming the sudden economic malaise on the Biden administration. However, Moore concluded the segment by agreeing that Trump's tariffs “are not a good thing for the economy right now,” adding that businesses and investors disliked the uncertainty Trump's policies had created. [Fox News, America Reports, 3/4/25]
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The labor market was strong before Trump took office
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- Washington Post economic columnist Heather Long: “JUST IN: A strong December jobs report. The US economy added 256,000 jobs (well above expectations).” Long concluded, “Bottom line: No recession in site. Hiring did slow, but that's what the Fed wanted.” [Twitter/X, 1/10/25]
- KPMG U.S. chief economist Diane Swonk: “We generated 2.2M jobs in 2024, the slowest pace since 2020, but still above the 1.99M of 2019.” Swonk further noted the jobs report is “well outperforming expectations.” [Twitter/X, 1/10/25]
- Harvard University economist Jason Furman: “Bottom line: The really economy remains very robust. A variety of indicators show the labor market has stabilized.” Furman also noted that “overall jobs and employment are way above pre-COVID projections. Most of that is the unexpected surge of immigration.” [Twitter/X, 1/10/25, 1/10/25]
- RSM US chief economist Joseph Brusuelas: “2024 represented one of the best years in memory for American workers that saw their wages rise above inflation during the entire year while that 4% unemployment rate is pitch perfect definition of full employment.” Brusuelas elaborated: “Over the past year the economy generated 186,000 jobs per month on average and the unemployment rate averaged 4% during 2024. During the entire year wages increased 0.3% on average per month and were up 4% overall.” [Twitter/X, 1/10/25]
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Trump's mass layoffs and disruptive tariffs are driving economic turmoil, consumer price increases
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- Numerous economic indicators have already flipped negative in response to Trump's policy agenda. For months, MAGA sycophants and right-wing media personalities warned that Trump’s agenda to gut the federal government and institute widespread tariffs could devastate the economy, which they attempted to spin as an important step to restoring the balance supposedly missing from the strong economy Trump inherited from the Biden administration. With many of Trump’s policies now being implemented, economists, analysts, and news organizations are pointing to numerous indicators of a pullback in consumer spending, weak consumer confidence, worsening inflation expectations, and higher than expected weekly jobless claims as evidence that the promised economic mayhem has already begun. [Media Matters, 3/3/25]
- Bloomberg: U.S. stock markets slumped the day Trump’s tariffs went into effect, erasing all post-election gains. On March 4, Bloomberg reported that “the bet that Trump wouldn’t do anything to disturb the stock market rally has, for now, been lost” as the financial industry recoiled at the imposition of new tariffs. At the time of publication, the S&P 500 index had lost nearly $3.6 trillion in value since peaking last month, a downturn investors attributed directly to Trump’s policies. [Bloomberg, 3/4/25]
- University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers to MSNBC: “What's coming out of the White House is, frankly, unmitigated nonsense, and there's not an economist alive who would defend what they're doing.” Wolfers pointed to stock market declines after Trump’s tariff announcements, saying: “This is the stock market telling you, ‘We think this is absolutely terrible for American business.’” [MSNBC, Ana Cabrera Reports, 3/4/25]
- Heather Long: “Trump is steering the economy toward a recession with these massive tariffs and swift gov't cuts.” After listing the dropoff in stocks, the reduction in consumer spending, and the Canadian tariffs in particular, Long added: “This is a recipe for much slower growth, fewer jobs and higher prices.” [Twitter/X, 3/4/25]
- Jason Furman: 10-year interest rates are declining “because the uncertainty Trump has unleashed is reducing demand.” [Twitter/X, 3/3/25]
- Stony Brook University economist Stephanie Kelton on GDP growth for G7 nations: “We had the fastest 🏇 in the race--by far--and Trump decided to take it out back and shoot it.” [Twitter/X, 3/4/25]
- Ontario to mark up electricity prices by 25% in three U.S. states in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs. In response to Trump's imposition of a 25% tariff on imported Canadian goods, The Wall Street Journal reported that the province of Ontario “will slap a 25% export tax on electricity it sends to 1.5 million homes in Minnesota, Michigan and New York.” Ontario's conservative premier, Doug Ford, also announced the province was prepared to escalate further retaliatory measures if the Trump administration initiated any additional tariff burdens on Canada. [The Wall Street Journal, 3/4/15]
- GasBuddy.com: Prices for gasoline, fuel oil, and other petroleum products will increase across the United States due to Trump’s tariffs. In a March 4 blog post, oil and gasoline industry analyst Patrick De Haan explained how Trump’s imposition of 10% tariffs on petroleum products from Canada would result in fuel price changes across the U.S. De Haan predicted that the Northeast would “see the most significant increase” for gasoline prices “at around 20-40 cents per gallon by mid-March,” while other regions of the country would see a delay in price increases “of 1-3 weeks.” De Haan noted that “U.S. refineries can’t simply switch from processing Canadian to American crude oil due to specialized equipment, infrastructure, and pipeline configuration that has been built up over the last 50 years. Long-term, the tariff will add costs throughout the entire supply and refining system, ultimately passing costs to consumers in the form of higher fuel prices.” [GasBuddy.com, 3/4/25]