LETTER: Trump points fingers at Biden

President Donald Trump, who has declared economic war on the world, is now blaming former President Joe Biden for America’s recent economic slump. Fresh data has shown that the U.S. GDP contracted by 0.3 percent during the first three months of Mr. Trump’s presidency. This, following three years of solid growth. The current president, who has the lowest 100-day approval rating of any president in the past 80 years (Washington Post, Ipsos, ABC News), even went as far as to blame Mr. Biden for the second quarter as well.

This flies in the face of all the hard data. Near the end of Mr. Biden’s term, the U.S. economy was bigger and better than anytime since World War II. The stock market was near an all-time high. Inflation had dropped to 2.4 percent, wages were outpacing inflation and the unemployment rate was at a 50-year low of 4.1 percent.

In fact, the feature story on the cover of The Economist (Oct. 19, 2024) described the U.S. economy as the “Envy of the World.” The article said that the winner of the November election would inherit one of strongest economies of all time.

Not long-ago, Mr. Trump blamed Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell for hurting the economy by not lowering interest rates fast enough, even claiming, “I think that I understand interest rates a lot better than him.” But then again, this could be expected from a man who also blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the war with Russia.

It is not at all surprising that Mr. Trump is blaming Mr. Biden for the chaotic mess that he himself created. He never takes responsibility for anything; he simply shifts the blame to someone else. That is his modus operandi.

Throughout his entire life Mr. Trump has been guided by the unprincipled policies of always appearing strong, never admitting a mistake and never apologizing for anything. That is who Donald Trump is — and he is never going to change.