Former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow conceded on Thursday that his gloomy forecasts of a looming recession under President Joe Biden were off the mark, admitting that the U.S. economy is “not as bad” as his recent fear-mongering would indicate.
After the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on Thursday that the nation’s gross domestic product shattered expectations and grew by 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, Biden touted the economic growth as proof that his policies are working.
“Today we learned that the U.S. economy grew 3.1 percent over the past year while adding another 2.7 million jobs, and with core inflation moving back down towards the pre-pandemic benchmark,” Biden said in a statement. “As a result, wages, wealth, and employment are higher now than they were before the pandemic. That’s good news for American families and American workers. That is three years in a row of growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up on my watch.”
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Kudlow, now a Fox Business Network host, appeared on Fox News’ America Reports to discuss the latest GDP numbers and how they might impact the upcoming presidential election. After Fox News anchor Sandra Smith noted that the Biden administration was bragging about the better-than-expected economic growth, Kudlow said he would be doing the same thing in their shoes.
“Look, it was a good quarter, don’t get me wrong, 3.3 percent beat estimates,” he declared. “And the last quarter was a good quarter, 4.9 percent. Absolutely. So he gets his due. If I were he, I would be out slinging that hash, too. No problem.”
At the same time, Kudlow attempted to throw some cold water on the latest economic report, attributing much of the growth to federal spending. “I don’t want to be accused of denying his numbers,” he added. “But I’m saying if you put it in perspective, it really is—a big chunk of it is government spending.”
Kudlow, who has notoriously been wrong about his economic (and pandemic) forecasts for decades, was then asked about his recent prognostications that so-called Bidenomics would soon lead to a recession and “significant slump.”
“You’ve got the [Dow Jones] making record after record after record,” Smith stated. “Larry, what do you say to folks who say, ‘Wait a second. This is not as bad as you have been saying it is?’”
“I would say, probably, I would agree,” Kudlow replied, prompting a shocked Smith to exclaim: “Whoa! That’s a headline!”
In the end, though, both Smith and Kudlow asserted that the lingering effects of the high inflation that Americans suffered through at the beginning of Biden’s presidency would continue to hurt the president politically.
“Although Mr. Biden’s economic numbers in the last six months have improved—those are facts, I acknowledge that—you don’t see it in the polling data at all,” he said. “And the reason for that is, as you just noted, his Achilles heel is still the affordability crunch.”
Kudlow also suggested that consumer prices could soon start to spike again, wondering aloud “how long can we keep the inflation lid on” due to “all this government spending.”
