As Election Day 2024 arrived, the U.S. economy had reached an extraordinary sweet spot, featuring strong growth, low unemployment, falling inflation, record highs on Wall Street, and low gas prices. The Washington Post’s Heather Long explained in an October column, “We are living through one of the best economic years of many people’s lifetimes.” The same day, Politico described the conditions as “a dream economy.”
The Economist, a leading British publication, also described the U.S. economy as “the envy of the world,” adding that the American economy had “left other rich countries in the dust.”
After Election Day, all Donald Trump had to do was avoid screwing it up. The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell explained in a column, “How could Donald Trump deliver on his promise to fix the U.S. economy? On Day 1, [he] should simply proclaim he’s already fixed it — and go play golf. By which I mean: Declare victory but do absolutely nothing else.”
The Republican president, of course, had a very different approach in mind, and at least so far, the results haven’t been great. The New York Times reported this week, “The United States economy is starting to show signs of strain as President Trump’s abrupt moves to shrink federal spending, lay off government workers and impose tariffs on America’s largest trading partners rattle businesses and reverberate across states and cities.”
The latest data on consumer confidence doesn’t look great. The latest data on inflation expectations doesn’t look great. The latest data on new unemployment claims also doesn’t look great. The latest data on consumer spending — you guessed it — doesn’t look great.
Even on Wall Street, the major stock market indexes — which Trump has long obsessed over — are lower than they were on Inauguration Day, and behind the pace of the major indexes abroad.
As Semafor reported, the developments have not gone unnoticed among prominent private-sector executives.
“A difficult time to invest.” “Everybody’s paralyzed.” “I’m sorry I can’t be particularly positive.” “The chaos that is reigning right now is causing everyone to sit on their hands.” That’s Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, ON Semiconductor CEO Hassane El-Khoury, Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson, and Nasdaq Private Market CEO Tom Callahan on the world of Donald Trump right now. Their comments over the past week capture a growing disquiet among business leaders, a month into a presidency that many of them had cheered.
The report added that as CEOs watch Trump move forward with his agenda, “optimism is fading.”
This came on the heels of The Wall Street Journal publishing a report with a headline that read, “For CEOs and Bankers, the Trump Euphoria Is Fading Fast.”
Around the same time, Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley said at a conference, in reference to the White House agenda, “So far what we’re seeing is a lot of cost, and a lot of chaos.”
To be sure, all of this comes with some caveats. For example, it might seem as if Trump has been in the Oval Office for most of our lives, but his second term hasn’t yet reached the six-week mark yet. It’s possible that his administration’s policies might eventually produce more encouraging results.
But as key metrics cool, and the president’s incompetence on economic matters becomes more pronounced, it’s easy to imagine even more corporate leaders shrugging off fears of political reprisals and making their displeasure with Trump known.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
