Donald Trump’s MAGA supporters are blaming Joe Biden for the economic crisis and accusing the ex–president of covering up a recession during his presidency.
With money markets in freefall this week, the White House is doubling down on its message that the Biden administration must accept accountability.
Trump dodged the issue at the weekend when Maria Bartiromo asked if he expected a recession this year.
“I hate to predict things like that,” Trump said on Fox News, quickly adding: “There is a period of transition.”
But now that the stock markets have gone south the blame game is on with MAGA pushing the theory that the new administration is paying the price for his predecessor’s “catastrophic” economy.
Senior Republican sources insist Biden dodged the bullet during his term by ignoring the traditional definition that the country is in recession—which happens when the economy experiences two consecutive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product growth.
Amid high inflation, the U.S. was in negative growth territory in the first two quarters of 2022—1.6 percent and -0.9 percent respectively—but then Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen insisted the labor market was too strong for the country to be in a recession.
However, MAGA loyalists insist the labor market was propped up artificially, quoting the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as reporting there were 818,000 fewer jobs created in the year up to March 2024 than previously claimed in the biggest jobs markdown since the 2009 financial crisis.
The previous year, U.S. employment growth was 300,000 jobs less than projected.
“Biden literally changed the definition of a recession,” said the insider. “We were in a recession, he just wouldn’t admit to it.”
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that the market’s behavior on any given day is a “snapshot of a moment in time.” She blamed the Biden administration for the current volatility.
“We are in a period of transition from the mess that was created under Joe Biden in the previous administration. Joe Biden left this country in an economic disaster,” she added.
The “recession cover-up” has been widely debated among MAGA circles online since the markets tanked.
Jessica Tarlov, co-host of The Five on Fox News, posted: “Strange that Biden never had these crappy numbers when it was actually his economy.”
“Now that Biden is gone, all of the economic data from 2024 is being revised to show what really happened. It turns out the economy was lousy in 2024, they simply lied about it,” Wall Street Mav told its 1.6 million followers on X after pinning a post showing that hourly wages fell under the previous administration after being adjusted for inflation, contrary to Democratic Party claims that they grew.
MAGA fan Brittany Rae added: “We’ve been in a recession for 3 years. Biden changed the definition, like he did with vaccines. Wake TF UP!”
“The February jobs report made clear that President Trump’s America First economic agenda of tariffs, deregulation, and the unleashing of American energy is driving sustainable, private sector job growth,” White House Spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Beast.
“As he did in his first term, President Trump will once again deliver prosperity for the American people—without having to resort to juking statistics or artificially buoying job creation with inflationary, runaway government spending,” he added.
“Let’s check the record,” Andrew Bates, a former spokesman for President Biden, told the Daily Beast. “At the Republican Convention, Trump said, ‘Tonight, I make this pledge to the great people of America: I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately’ and ‘the economy will soar.’
“But according to Trump’s own administration, inflation worsened once he took over. And it’s a pattern—consumer sentiment, job growth, and the stock market have all declined since Trump inherited the best-performing economy in the world from Biden.
“The top reason why is that Trump raised tariff taxes on middle-class families and businesses large and small—which Joe Biden explicitly warned Trump would hurt the economy. Trump could turn a lot of this around with a word, but he knows he can’t cut taxes for the rich without tariff revenue from everyone else.”
