Although President Donald Trump remains fond of blaming Joe Biden for many of America’s financial hardships, he has also insisted — sometimes in the same breath — that the economy is thriving, recently giving the nation’s finances an “A+++++.”
But ask Republicans in Congress whose economy it actually is, as MS NOW did in recent days, and the answers grow noticeably murkier — and more cautious — reflecting both political calculation and lingering uncertainty about America’s financial reality.
For many Republicans, the response was nakedly political: The good parts belong to Trump; the bad parts still belong to Biden.
“It depends on what part of the economy,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said. He said lower gas prices are a bright spot, but argued there are still regulations left to undo from the Biden years.
Other Republicans looked to downplay how much of the economy belongs to the current president, despite Trump’s insistence that, “starting on Day One, we will end inflation and make America affordable again.”
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told MS NOW that “moving economies is like moving battleships.”
“That’s just the way it is,” Donalds continued. “It takes a lot of work to get an economy back on the right footing. We’re already starting to see some of the early signs of this.”
“It takes a while to undo the damage,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said.
“I don’t know whose economy it is,” Roy said. “What I know is we had massive spending during COVID. We had massive inflationary spending. We had massive regulations, and we’re unwinding a lot of that.”
Some Republicans were clear that nearly a year into Trump’s presidency, it’s his economy.
Asked at what point it becomes the Trump economy, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said, “It is now.”
But Republicans still sought to caveat those types of answers by blaming Biden for things like inflation.
“The fact is that 40-year high inflation has still caused abruptly a 20% decrease in the standard of living for most Americans,” Cornyn said. “So we’re having to try to clean up after that mess.”
(The inflation rate had already fallen to roughly 3% when Biden left office, after peaking at 9% in 2022.)
Still, time and again, when MS NOW asked Republicans if it was Trump’s economy, they gave excuses as to why Americans may still be struggling as the calendar approaches 2026. In the words of Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.V., Trump is trying to “drag” America “out of the Biden economy.”
Justice cautioned it’s going to take a “little while” to accomplish such a reset — saying Trump is trying to bring manufacturing “back to America.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the president “gets an A for his efforts.”
And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the president’s top allies on Capitol Hill, said he believes we are in the Trump economy: “All the trend lines are going in the right direction.”
He cited lower gas prices and mortgage rates.
Asked when Trump’s economy begins, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said: “Next year.”
To be sure, some Republicans wish the president would just own the current state of things and instead focus on what he’s doing to improve the economic outlook.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is set to retire at the end of this term, invoked his time as speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives between 2011 and 2015.
“I was about three months into my role as speaker — coming in in the financial crisis — and I had a reporter ask me, Do I own the economy? And I said, ‘I absolutely do,’” Tillis said.
His messaging suggestion to President Trump was that it’s better just to say “we ran to fix the problem that Biden created.”
“It is a problem,” Tillis said. “We own the solution. Move on.”
As much as Trump continues to take victory laps on the economy, he’s also fond of blaming Biden.
“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said during his White House address last Wednesday night. But as cautious as Republicans were to give the economy high marks and say Trump owns the nation’s financial situation, Democrats were very clear: Trump owns the economy — every last bit of it. “When you take office, you take ownership,” Rep. Rose DeLauro, D-Conn., told MS NOW. “That’s what leadership is about.” “It became Trump’s economy a long time ago,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., argued Trump’s tariff rollout was a clear turning point. “He may try to sidestep that responsibility, but we all know that it was his reckless tariffs that have driven the prices of goods in our supermarket,” Espaillat said. And when asked to square the president’s recent comments on the economy — where he takes credit for the good parts and blames Biden for the bad parts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., answered with her own question. “Are you asking me whether or not President Trump is logical?” Warren said. “He’s saying two inconsistent things at the same time, and that’s why nobody believes him,” she said. Of course, more important than whether politicians think it’s Trump’s economy is what voters think. And recent answers aren’t great for the president. In a new NPR/Marist poll released just last week, Trump’s approval rating on the economy was at its lowest point in either of his two terms, with just 36% of Americans saying they approve of how he is handling the economy. Fifty-seven percent disapprove. In a recent CBS News/YouGov poll, 47% of U.S. adults said Trump is responsible for the state of the economy — while only 22% said Biden. But even among Trump’s base, ownership remains contested. According to a recent Politico poll, only 18% of those identifying as “MAGA Republicans” think Trump bears full responsibility for the economy now — an indication that many of Trump’s biggest fans may not be buying claims that the economy is in great shape. And if that’s the case, Democrats may have a real opening on making the economy and affordability centerpieces of their midterm messaging. That Politico poll indicated that 46% of respondents said the cost of living in the U.S. was the worst they could every remember, with even 37% of Trump voters agreeing. And whether it’s just a matter of how long Trump has been in office or his actual policies — like implementing tariffs without the consent of Congress — 46% of Americans in that Politico poll said Trump’s administration is responsible for the costs they are struggling with. If those numbers continue to rise — and if economic conditions fail to improve before the midterms — Trump and congressional Republicans may find it increasingly difficult to argue that the economy is still Biden’s problem. Jack Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.
Kevin Frey is a congressional reporter for MS NOW.
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW. Recommended
