U.S. Economy March-September 2025

Largest Employer by State 2025
U.S. Government & governance

22 March
Here’s What’s in the Big Domestic Policy Bill to Deliver Trump’s Agenda
The House-passed bill includes a large tax cut, as well as more money for defense and immigration enforcement, financed in part by slashing health, nutrition, education and clean energy programs.
The legislation would slash taxes, providing the biggest savings to the wealthy, and steer more money to the military and immigration enforcement, while cutting health, nutrition, education and clean energy programs to cover part of the cost. To win votes for passage, Republican leaders accelerated the implementation of work requirements in the Medicaid program and the repeal of clean energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, among other changes.
26 March
What Happens When US Economic Data Can’t Be Trusted?
With Donald Trump firing independent regulators and killing off advisory committees, data on the world’s largest economy may be next.
(Bloomberg) Last week, while many in the US were focused on court orders and secret flights to El Salvador, something else happened that we at Trumponomics think should have gotten more attention. President Donald Trump fired two commissioners on the US Federal Trade Commission—apparently for being members of the Democratic Party
And while firing federal employees—legally or otherwise—is common practice in Trump’s Washington, it’s not supposed to happen at an independent agency—not like this anyway. But if it can happen to officials there, that raises questions about whether folks at other independent bodies, even senior people like Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, could be arbitrarily jettisoned, too.
That in turn made us think about developments in other corners of Washington that are raising red flags about the independence and oversight not only of agencies that implement economic and regulatory policies, but the data itself—data on which the world judges the health of the American economy. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Elon Musk have been floating trial balloons on this topic of late.
Musk, Lutnick Play With Fire When It Comes to GDP

27 August
How much danger is America’s central bank in?
Whether Lisa Cook stays or goes, important norms have been broken
(The Economist) IT IS the first time that an American president has tried to sack a governor on the board of the Federal Reserve. The credibility of the central bank is one of the underpinnings of America’s world-beating economy. And yet, although dollar assets weakened a little on the news, financial markets are taking it all in their stride. Whatever is going on?
Donald Trump escalated his war against the Fed on August 25th, saying he would fire one of its governors, Lisa Cook, for alleged misstatements in her mortgage applications. Fed governors can be sacked only for cause and Ms Cook, who has not been charged, has vowed to fight her dismissal in court. Yet everybody knows this is not really about mortgage fraud. Instead, like a show trial, it is a message to anyone who serves on the Fed’s board that Mr Trump can impose his desire for low interest rates. On August 26th he crowed that “we’ll have a majority [on the board] very shortly.”
One reason investors are not yet panicking is that the president underestimates how much work he still has to do. Even if Ms Cook departs, his pick to replace her must gain confirmation from the Senate, a process that scotched the chances of Judy Shelton and Stephen Moore, Mr Trump’s nominees during his first term. And if they clear that hurdle, they will still be part of a committee that sets rates by majority vote.

26 August
Seeking to Control the Fed, Trump Risks Upending a Pillar of the Global Economy
President Trump’s attempt to fire Lisa Cook, a Fed governor, will set off a long legal battle. Economists warn it could lead to higher inflation and government borrowing costs.
(NYT) Peter Conti-Brown, an expert on Fed governance at the University of Pennsylvania, said Ms. Cook’s firing, if successful, would mark “the end of central bank independence as we know it.”
In the short term, Mr. Trump’s attempt to fire Ms. Cook creates more uncertainty at a critical moment for Fed policy. Ms. Cook has vowed to fight her ouster, and on Tuesday her lawyer promised to file a lawsuit challenging what he called an “illegal action.” Legal experts say she has a strong case given that she hasn’t been convicted of a crime and that the fraud allegations involve her private conduct, not her work at the Fed.
In the longer run, if Mr. Trump succeeds in replacing Ms. Cook, he will have reshaped the central bank in a way hardly anyone thought possible before last week. During a marathon cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president appeared to delight at his efforts so far to remake the Fed and its roster, telling reporters: “We’ll have a majority very shortly, so that’ll be great.”

Trump’s latest Fed jab breeds more dismay than drama
Market reaction muted after Trump says he fired Lisa Cook
Analysts say Fed credibility further undermined
Selling U.S. not easy when rate cuts loom
(Reuters) Trump’s gradual ratcheting up of his campaign to exert more influence over the path of monetary policy has already knocked confidence in U.S. sovereign debt as a safe investment, and in the exceptional advantage the dollar enjoyed as a currency of choice.
That advantage had allowed the U.S. to fund a massive national debt that currently stands at $36 trillion, and owe international investors some $26 trillion at the end of 2024.
Foreign money has been leaving U.S. markets since Trump took over as president. Global ex-U.S. equity funds have received massive flows as investors redirected capital from the United States, LSEG Lipper data shows. Investors have sold U.S.-focused funds steadily since May.

22 August
Fed’s Powell opens door to rate cut, citing job market risks
The Fed chair said the decision would be based on incoming economic data, signaling it was not a response to Trump’s calls for lower borrowing costs.
(Politico) Powell, delivering a closely watched speech at the central bank’s annual conference in Grand Teton National Park, said the U.S. economy faces two competing risks: that inflation could get worse, which would call for more elevated rates, and that the labor market could weaken, which would call for lower rates.
Monetary Policy and the Fed’s Framework Review
Speech by Chair Jerome H. Powell

21 August
‘There’s no hiding’: Powell faces daunting options in pivotal speech
The economic dilemma comes on top of an extraordinary, high-pressure political situation the Fed chair faces, as Trump relentlessly demands lower rates.
(Politico) Powell is staring at the double-barreled threats of rising prices and slowing growth — potentially the early stages of a phenomenon known as stagflation that the U.S. hasn’t seen in four decades. And at some point, he will have to decide which is the bigger danger.
There’s a real risk of a nasty outcome in either direction: If he holds rates too high for too long, job losses could spike, and the economy could even tip into a recession. If he cuts rates too much, he could reignite inflation in an economy that hasn’t entirely recovered from the last bout after the Covid pandemic struck. It’s not at all clear which scenario is more likely.
The moment for him to begin picking a direction might arrive Friday when he gives a widely anticipated speech at the Fed’s signature annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where investors will be on edge watching for any signal that a rate cut could come in September. The central bank will get more data on the labor market and inflation between now and then, but more information is not going to make the choice much easier.

17 August
This glaring weakness could bring Trump to his knees​
Commentary writer Jason Miciak argues that scandals won’t topple Trump, but economic hardship could. He urges Democrats to seize the opening by branding a clear plan like “Project 2026: An Economy for All Americans” and forcing Trump to defend his weak record on jobs and inflation.
It is true that much of Trump’s appeal to his base rests on racism, misogyny, nativism, and theocratic urges, but consider all that as baked in the base and immovable — sad as it is. Americans are even supporting his militarization of Washington. The only opening lies in pure economic self-interest, the part Trump overlooks as politically unimportant. Maybe it’s not to MAGAs … in a good economy.
I pound this all the time. Trump has never had to defend himself amidst bad economic news. The concerning reports are just now starting to trickle in, and the predictions are that it will get worse. Create a plan to be on top of it as the problems snowball, slowing the economy further. All power means all blame.
(Raw Story) … without giving so much as an inch on the Epstein matter, Democrats must prove that they handle two priorities at once by focusing on the vast numbers of voters Trump has left behind in an economy starting to teeter on the brink of a serious downturn.
… Trump has never had to defend himself amidst serious economic worry. Additionally, he’s given no indication to anyone, supporters or otherwise, that he prioritizes working wages, has a plan to fight inflation, or a way to defend the average American’s standard of living. Trump has left his entire flank exposed by favoring the fate of his billionaire buddies and crypto-bros.
The choice to fire someone over the release of a moderately disappointing jobs report, as well as a history of trying to create his own reality, demonstrates a preference to conceal that which Americans already feel rather than put forth a plan in response.
It says, “I don’t care.”
Fitting, because nothing indicates he does.
And that is the flank Democrats must attack. Fortunately, such an action plan need not come at the expense of shedding any values. Democrats can and must still defend equality across all lines. Protect the environment. Investigate Epstein. And hold tight to democracy over authoritarianism. The good news is that it can be done without much difficulty. The ground is that wide open.
Trump’s absolute power depends wholly on a subservient Congress, something made infinitely easier during relatively good economic times. Democrats must force Congressional Republicans to continue to do Trump’s bidding on Epstein, militarizing cities, tax cuts for billionaires, and tariffs, but now make them own it while dancing backward in a spiraling economic symphony.

13 August
Tighter US border rules are putting European visitors off, says Tui
Holiday company boss says tourists are opting instead for destinations such as Canada, Africa and Asia
Tui’s report of a decline in US travel by its customers comes as figures have highlighted a sharp fall in overall tourism to the country in recent months; the industry is expected to lose out on billions of dollars this year as a result of government actions. Travel from Canada and Mexico in 2025 has fallen by 20% compared with last year, according to the US Travel Association.

11-12 August
US Core CPI Picks Up on Services; Goods Inflation More Subdued
(Bloomberg) Underlying US inflation accelerated in July though the cost of tariff-exposed goods didn’t rise as much as feared, boosting expectations that Federal Reserve officials will lower interest rates when they meet next month.
The core consumer price index, which excludes the often volatile food and energy categories, increased 0.3% from June, the strongest pace since the start of the year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Tuesday. That was in line with economists’ forecasts, as was the overall CPI on a monthly basis.
Trump nominates conservative economist to head agency that compiles jobs, inflation data
(AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he has nominated E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to head the agency that compiles and publishes the nation’s employment and inflation figures.
Robert Reich: Trump’s political hack nominee for the Bureau of Labor Statistics is already monkeying with the data.
The Senate mustn’t confirm him
E.J. Antoni — who’s the chief economist of the Heritage Foundation and was a contributor to its Project 2025 (should tell you all you need to know) — says the B.L.S. should stop issuing a monthly jobs report and instead publish jobs data every three months. Today he told Fox Business News:
“until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data. Major decision-makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences.”
Hello? “Until it is corrected”? Antoni falsely assumes that the current monthly data are incorrect simply because the B.L.S. later revised them.
Earth to Trump world: Revisions in the job numbers are inevitable. When I was Secretary of Labor, almost every month’s jobs report was revised upward or downward in subsequent months as more data became available. …
Earth to the Senate: Don’t confirm Antoni.
Paul Krugman: Trump Plays the Carnage Card
Fake crime wave, real power grab
(Substack) Ever since that latest weak jobs report, Trump has been frantically trying to convince the American public that the economy is doing great. He is failing, and predictably so. Experience shows that trying to talk up the economy when people don’t perceive it as good never works, even if the data are favorable. It’s even less likely to work when the data actually aren’t good, and calling people who point out economic weakness BUMs isn’t likely to help.
…will Trump be universally ridiculed for his absurd claims? Will people understand that what we’re seeing, aside from an attempt to seize even more power, is an attempt to change the subject from the weakening economy and the Epstein affair?

4 August
Trump is Getting Desperate
We’re in an extremely dangerous moment
Paul Krugman
(Substack) … What will he do when his tariffs and deportations start showing up in inflation numbers? I don’t know how much we’ll see in the next release, coming Aug. 12. But anecdotal evidence suggests that companies, which have been holding back on passing tariff costs on to consumers in the hope that Trump would back down, are getting ready to raise prices. And private surveys, like the S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index, suggest that a significant inflation bump is just around the corner.
The thing is, official economic data are basically starting to confirm what mainstream economists have been saying all along. Erratic policy that creates uncertainty depresses growth and job creation; tariffs raise prices. Trump has been betting that he’s smarter than economists warning about the downsides of his policies. After all, they’re all at Marxist institutions like … Goldman Sachs. And he may try to order the statistical agencies to report better news. But nobody will believe it.

24 July
If Trump Keeps Intimidating the Fed, He Will Pay a Price
(NYT Editorial Board) … Wise politicians have long appreciated the benefits of a central bank insulated from political pressure. They have understood that the Fed’s independence allows them to carp and caterwaul about its decisions without impeding its decision making. They can insist that they would like to deliver faster growth, if only the Fed would let them.
The question hanging over the economy is whether Mr. Trump understands that doing anything more than complaining would be counterproductive.
… The subtext of Mr. Trump’s visit to the Fed, the first by a president in two decades, is that some of his aides are pressing him to use the renovations as a legal pretext to remove the Fed chairman if Mr. Powell continues to resist Mr. Trump’s wishes. … It is far from clear that Mr. Trump has the power to fire Mr. Powell, but even in raising the possibility, Mr. Trump is threatening the stability of the economy and the integrity of America’s political institutions.

22 July
What Trump’s Feud With Jerome Powell Is Really About
The president doesn’t think the Federal Reserve chair is bad at his job. He objects to the job itself.
By Jonathan Chait
The Federal Reserve’s assignment is to steward the long-term interests of the U.S. economy—even at the occasional expense of short-term pain—by balancing the twin objectives of suppressing inflation and managing the unemployment rate. Trump, however, believes that the Fed’s objective should be to speed up the economy under Republican administrations and slow it down under Democratic ones. To the extent that the central bank balances unemployment and inflation, he would like to see the pain of high unemployment shifted onto Democratic administrations so that Republican ones can benefit from rapid economic growth.

21 July
Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen: The Fed Must Be Independent
As former chairs of the Federal Reserve, we know from our experiences and our reading of history that the ability of the central bank to act independently is essential for its effective stewardship of the economy. Recent attempts to compromise that independence, including the president’s demands for a radical reduction in interest rates and his threats to fire its chair, Jerome Powell, if the Fed does not comply, risk lasting and serious economic harm. They undermine not only Mr. Powell but also all future chairs and, indeed, the credibility of the central bank itself.

15 July
The tariff-driven inflation that economists feared begins to emerge
(AP) — Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of everything from groceries and clothes to furniture and appliances.
US Inflation Data Comes in Cool But Signals Tariff Bite
(Bloomberg) Economists have long warned of collateral damage from Donald Trump’s trade war, but after four months of cooler-than-predicted numbers, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday again reported that US inflation rose less than expected. However, unlike in previous months, the new data signaled that some companies are indeed starting to pass tariff-related costs on to consumers.
As overall prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, appliances jumped the most in nearly five years, toys increased at the fastest pace since early 2021 while household furnishings and sports equipment climbed by the most since 2022. Inflation Insights President Omair Sharif pointed out that excluding cars, core goods prices climbed 0.55% in June—the biggest monthly advance since November 2021. “Today’s report showed that tariffs are beginning to bite,” he said in a note.
… That said, the report has a little bit of everything for Federal Reserve policymakers who are divided as to whether tariffs will cause a one-time price shock or something more persistent. There’s evidence of tariff pass-through for officials inclined to keep interest rates elevated, and yet few signs of a broader reverberation for those who are ready to lower them.

Jamie Dimon Backs Jerome Powell Over Trump in Fed Fight
The C.E.O. of JPMorgan Chase, who has rarely taken on President Trump during his second term, wades into the argument over the Federal Reserve chair.
(NYT) On Tuesday, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase went out of his way to take exception to Mr. Trump’s posture toward Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve. Mr. Trump and his allies have been withering toward Mr. Powell, whom they blame for not cutting interest rates and have accused, with no evidence, of political bias.
“Playing around with the Fed can often have adverse consequences — the absolute opposite of what you might be hoping for,” Mr. Dimon told reporters after his bank’s quarterly earnings release.
There is deep support on Wall Street for preserving a Fed that is apolitical and free from White House meddling, which they view as a linchpin of America’s free market system. And in other ways, Mr. Dimon has an interest in standing up for Mr. Powell, because the Fed regulates JPMorgan and other big banks.
Robert Reich: Jamie Dimon’s Last Stand (Hopefully)
Dimon was the business person Democrats turned to when they needed someone to say (as he did, truthfully) that “forty percent of Americans make less than $15 an hour [and] can’t afford a $400 bill, whether it’s medical or fixing their car,” or that “middle class incomes have been stagnant for years. Income inequality has gotten worse. More than 28 million Americans don’t have medical insurance at all.”
In those days, Dimon was a truth-teller. He also sounded like a Democrat, which he used to claim he was.
Until Donald Trump came along. Then Dimon became a dimon in the rough (sorry).
This morning after JPMorgan Chase’s second-quarter earnings exceeded forecasters’ expectations, Dimon called the economy “resilient” and opined that Trump’s policies were responsible. “The finalization of tax reform and potential deregulation are positive for the economic outlook,” he said.
Oh, please. Trump’s cockamamie tariffs and his Big Ugly bill could cause the economy to tank within weeks. We learned today that inflation grew in June as the weight of Trump’s tariffs started to affect the economy.

Trump tariffs push up inflation despite pressure on Fed to cut rates
The White House has been trumpeting the absence of tariff-related price hikes as a sign that the president’s agenda is succeeding.
(Politico) The Labor Department report lands as Trump and top administration officials move ahead with a massive pressure campaign to persuade Powell to reduce borrowing costs as soon as possible.
Trump’s repeated and personal attacks on the Fed chair — whom he has dubbed a “numbskull” for keeping rates elevated — have dovetailed with an investigation by White House budget chief Russ Vought into a costly renovation of the central bank’s headquarters.
The White House has trumpeted the absence of tariff-related price hikes as a sign the president’s agenda is succeeding despite growing costs borne by U.S. companies that rely on imports. Shortly after the report was released, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the $100 billion in revenue that has been generated by Trump’s tariffs so far this year.
But Powell has repeatedly said the Fed won’t rush to lower rates until policymakers have a clearer understanding of how the president’s tariffs — which were much larger than the central bank anticipated — affect prices.
Powell’s term as chair expires next spring, and Trump says that whoever he names to replace him will be someone “who wants to cut rates.” In an appearance on Bloomberg TV, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a “formal process” was underway to name a replacement and that Powell should step down as governor — a term that runs through January 2028 — once his time as chair runs out.
Despite the administration’s jawboning, it’s unclear how many cuts could be in store now that there’s evidence of tariff-related price hikes.
Rising Inflation Underscores Risks in Trump’s New Tariff Threats
New data showing price increases last month could foreshadow even higher costs if the president imposes steep tariffs on Aug. 1.
(NYT) President Trump’s steep tariffs have started to weigh on consumers’ wallets, sending prices higher as the White House readies a more drastic — and potentially costly — expansion of its global trade war.
The risks in Mr. Trump’s economic strategy began to show on Tuesday, with the release of data that found inflation had accelerated in June. Prices rose noticeably on appliances, clothing and furniture, products that are all heavily exposed to the president’s taxes on imports from Canada, China and other major trading partners.
The inflation report undercut Mr. Trump’s continued assertions that Americans would not face financial repercussions from his increasingly aggressive trade brinkmanship. Since taking office, the president has imposed withering duties on allies and adversaries alike, with additional taxes on a range of products such as cars and steel.

7 July
The End of America’s Exorbitant Privilege
Desmond Lachman
(Project Syndicate) When he was France’s finance minister in the 1960s, former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing famously complained about the “exorbitant privilege” that the dollar’s position as the world’s leading reserve currency conferred on the United States. This meant, essentially, that the US could borrow at low interest rates, run persistently large trade deficits, and print money to finance its budget deficits.
… Since returning to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump has been systematically destroying faith in the dollar in both global financial markets and among governments and central banks. For starters, Trump has put America’s public finances on an even more unsustainable path than they were on before he took office.
When Trump began his second term, the US budget deficit had already widened to 6.2% of GDP, with nearly full employment, while the public-debt-to-GDP ratio had risen to around 100%. But things are about to get much worse. Far from putting America’s fiscal house in order, Trump and his supporters in Congress have pushed through their “Big, Beautiful Bill,” a tax and spending bill that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates will add around $3.4 trillion to the budget deficit over the next decade.

2 July
We Both Served as Treasury Secretary. We Know This Bill Is Dangerous.
By Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers
(NYT) … Mr. Clinton then and Mr. Trump now face serious fiscal problems and an economy that is being rapidly changed by new technology; then it was the internet, now it’s artificial intelligence.
In that earlier era, we followed a strategy of hoping for the best, while planning conservatively. We paired policies that reduced the deficit with others that stimulated investment. That set off a virtuous economic cycle of growth, deficit reduction, lower interest rates and thus more investment and growth. Fiscal responsibility helped contain inflation because it was accompanied by respect for the independence of the Federal Reserve and recognition of the importance of a strong dollar.
This current administration risks putting this cycle in reverse by undermining the Federal Reserve, imposing tariffs and passing a tax and policy bill that is more budget busting than big and beautiful. …

4 June
Republican Policy Bill Would Add $2.4 Trillion to Debt, Budget Office Says
(NYT) The estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is all but certain to inflame an already intense debate inside the G.O.P. about the fiscal consequences of their bill to enact President Trump’s agenda.
Conservatives and Wall Street investors had already expressed grave concerns that the measure would swell federal deficits, and some Senate Republicans have said they cannot back the legislation in its current form for that reason. That could derail the bill’s progress, given that the party can afford to lose no more than three votes in the Senate if all Democrats vote against it.

2 June
Economists Question G.O.P. Bill: Why Increase the Deficit in Good Times?
Huge deficits are already making bond investors nervous. Economists warn that could make it harder to respond to future crises.
(NYT) There is a basic rule of thumb when it comes to the federal budget. The government should spend heavily during times of crisis — recessions, wars, pandemics — and then get its fiscal house in order when the crisis passes.
The tax and spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last month turns that rule on its head, adding trillions to the debt when unemployment is low and the economy is solid by most measures. That could make it much harder for the government to come to the rescue in the next downturn.
The Senate this week is expected to take up the bill, which would extend most of the tax cuts enacted during President Trump’s first term, and would add billions of dollars in new tax breaks for tipped workers, business owners and other groups. It would cut spending, too, but not by nearly as much. In total, the bill would add trillions to the national debt over the next decade, according to congressional scorekeepers.

25-30 May
The One Thing That Could Still Torpedo Big Parts of Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill
(Slate) President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” is heading to the Senate. It would revise the tax code, cut Medicaid rolls, roll back clean energy programs, and increase funding for border enforcement. After weeks of wrangling, the House passed the bill last week by the thinnest of margins. The bill’s fate, though, ultimately depends on an obscure Senate rule: the Byrd rule.
Republicans are trying to pass the bill through the budget reconciliation process, which allows the Senate to close debate with a simple-majority vote—an exception to the usual 60-vote filibuster threshold. The problem for Republicans is the Byrd rule, which provides that provisions can be struck from reconciliation bills if their fiscal effects are “merely incidental to the non-budgetary components of the provision.”
MAGA showdown looming as conservative senators rage at parts of Trump bill: ‘It’s immoral, it’s wrong, it has to stop’
Senate Republicans can afford just three defections in budget reconciliation process
(The Independent) Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” passed the House of Representatives last week, but faces a still-uncertain future in the Senate.
With the House Republican budget package now on its way to the upper chamber after a marathon journey through the Rules Committee and House floor this past week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is taking a look at what it will require to pass Trump’s bill through the upper chamber, where it’s already facing heavy resistance.

22 May
House Passes Trump’s Domestic Policy Bill, Overcoming Last-Minute Resistance
The victory for Republicans came after Speaker Mike Johnson made concessions to holdouts in several factions and President Trump pressured the party to fall in line.
(NYT) The legislation would slash taxes, steer more money to the military and border security, and pay for some of the cost with cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, education and clean energy programs, adding significantly to federal deficits and to the ranks of the uninsured. It would also boost the debt limit by $4 trillion, allowing the government to continue borrowing to finance its obligations.
Its passage was a crucial victory for what Mr. Trump and Republicans are calling the “big, beautiful bill,” and the first step in their plan to push it through Congress over unified Democratic opposition using special rules that shield it from a Senate filibuster. But it also set the stage for bruising political attacks ahead of next year’s midterm elections, with Democrats already accusing Republicans of being so beholden to Mr. Trump that they voted to gut vital government programs to pay for tax breaks to the wealthy.
18 May
Key Panel Approves Trump’s Megabill, but Conservatives Hold Out for More Cuts
The Republican hard-liners who had blocked their party’s bill to deliver President Trump’s agenda allowed it to advance after saying they had won some changes. But they still refused to support it.

5 May
The Likes of Warren Buffett We Will Never See Again
By Roger Lowenstein, author of Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist.
(NYT) In an age of insecurity, Mr. Buffett was an anchor of endurance. Since he took the helm of Berkshire — on May 10, 1965 — General Motors, then the largest American corporation, has greeted 11 new chief executives. Sears, Roebuck, the biggest retailer, has vanished from the scene. Eleven U.S. presidents have come and gone (two of them having survived impeachment and one forced to resign), and Coca-Cola changed its formula, but Mr. Buffett didn’t change his.
And it wasn’t just constancy. Berkshire’s stock that day in May closed at $18 a share. When he delivered the news, it was above $809,000 — almost 45,000 times as high. Over the same span, the Dow Jones industrial average is up just under 45 times.
It was not just the math (Elon Musk is richer) but also the quality of his performance. To paraphrase the famous testimony of J.P. Morgan Sr., with whom Mr. Buffett is often compared, it was his character.
Mr. Buffett has long stood out on Wall Street because he eschewed its frequent chicanery, self-dealing and greed (and the double-talk that went with it). He revered the institutions of capitalism; most especially, he treated the executive’s duty to shareholders as a sacred trust.
Lest he be accused of violating that trust, he capped his annual salary at $100,000, He never took a stock option (the unholy tool by which chief executives expropriate a piece of the business from the shareholders for whom they are fiduciaries). In corporate America, that made him all but unique.

30 April
U.S. economy shrinks 0.3% in first quarter as Trump trade wars disrupt businesses
…many economists say that Trump’s massive import taxes — the erratic way he’s rolled them out — will hurt growth in the second half of the year and that recession risks are rising.
“We think the downturn of the economy will get worse in the second half of this year,’’ wrote Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. “Corrosive uncertainty and higher taxes — tariffs are a tax on imports — will drag GDP growth back into the red by the end of this year.’’
Wednesday’s report also showed an increase in prices that is likely to worry the Federal Reserve which is still trying to cool inflation after a severe pandemic run-up.

21 April
Trump renews attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Powell, accelerating US market slide
(AP) — President Donald Trump repeated his attacks Monday against the chair of the Federal Reserve, demanding that the central bank lower its key interest rate to boost the economy.
Trump’s comments drove the stock market and the dollar lower as investors in the U.S. and overseas grow increasingly wary about the economic standing of the U.S. On Friday, a top White House adviser said the administration is studying whether it can fire Powell, a move that would undermine the Fed’s independence and likely send shock waves through global financial markets.

20 April
Boeing’s self-inflicted damage leaves it vulnerable in trade war as China halts delivery of company’s jets
(Globe & Mail) …there’s a dirty secret, a grey area where the crisis elements that are beyond Boeing’s control (a tariff-driven trade war) and those it can control (the quality and safety of its airplanes) converge.
A significant contributing factor to Boeing’s problems in China stems from the company’s own quality problems, namely the worldwide grounding of its 737 Max following two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.
After the second crash, Boeing deliveries to China all but stopped as global regulators grounded the jets on safety concerns. Beijing did not allow deliveries to resume until last year.
The sad reality is that Boeing still has not fixed those quality problems within its control.

18 April
Travel to the U.S. from almost everywhere is falling under Trump
Charts show the scale of a steep drop in visitors from key countries and regions after President Donald Trump returned to office.
Last month, the number of overseas visitors fell nearly 12 percent compared with the same time last year, according to data from the International Trade Administration, an agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The drop in visitors from certain countries and regions is especially stark. According to the International Trade Administration data, there were 17 percent fewer visitors from Western Europe in March, 24 percent fewer from Central America and 26 percent fewer from the Caribbean compared with a year ago.
The data is considered preliminary because it does not contain figures for Canada and Mexico, which have not yet reported their data to the International Trade Administration.

9 April
Fact check: are US tariffs really bringing in $2bn a day as Trump claims?
Richard Partington, Senior economics correspondent
US president may have used some hypothetical maths but chances are slim that such sums are being raised
(The Guardian) Speaking after more than $5tn of losses on the US stock market since his “liberation day” announcement last week, he made the claim on Tuesday, adding: “America is going to be very rich again, very soon.”
Trump did not give any evidence for his $2bn claim, which is tough to substantiate and raises big questions about how his tariff plans are supposed to fit with his broader economic and fiscal policy.
As seismic as his tariff plans are, it is highly unlikely that $2bn a day is being raised, or ever could be.

8 April
Musk Calls Navarro a ‘Moron’ in Escalating Tariff Fight
(NYT) The feud between two of President Trump’s top advisers is playing out as the administration’s new tariffs have caused huge losses across global financial markets.
…Mr. Musk is estimated to have lost roughly $31 billion since Mr. Trump’s tariff announcement, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

7 April
Michelle Goldberg: Why Did So Many People Delude Themselves About Trump?
Donald Trump’s 2024 election sent many finance types into spasms of anticipatory ecstasy as they imagined freedom from regulations, taxes and unfamiliar pronouns.
… One Wall Street veteran, however, understood the risk an unleashed Trump posed to the economy. After Trump’s victory in November, Peter Berezin, chief global strategist at BCA Research, which provides macroeconomic research to major financial institutions, estimated that the chance of a recession had climbed to 75 percent. “The prospect of an escalation of the trade war is likely to depress corporate investment while lowering real household disposable income,” said a BCA report.

Trump Tariff Adviser Peter Navarro Invented His Very Own, Fictional Economics Expert
The White House trade guru has often cited “Ron Vara”—an anagram of his own last name. That might explain a lot.
By Charles P. Pierce

3-4 April
Investors Recoil From Trump’s Pledge to Remake the Global Economy
Stocks hadn’t fallen this far this fast since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. A 9.1 percent drop in the S&P 500 is the steepest weekly decline since March 2020.

Trump’s tariffs drive economy off a cliff. Thanks, Republicans. You wanted this.
(USA Today)Trump was never shy about his plans. He touted tariffs as if they were a mythical power other American presidents had been too timid to wield.
… Part of the administration’s argument for starting a trade war with these tariffs boils down to this magical thinking: Tariffs will lead to a boom in U.S. manufacturing, which will return America to the glory days of the middle class having good-paying factory jobs.
… Douglas Irwin, a trade expert at Dartmouth College, recently told Bloomberg radio that due to automation, even if factories returned to the United States, “jobs would probably not follow.”
The Trump administration is, simply put, operating ignorantly in a world that no longer exists.
April 2, 2025 (Wednesday)
Heather Cox Richardson
“Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much,” former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted
Just five months ago, on October 19, 2024, The Economist ran a special report on America’s economy. That economy was, the magazine said, “the envy of the world.” Today, stock market futures plummeted after President Donald J. Trump announced that he will impose a 10% tariff on all imports to the United States, with higher rates on about 60 countries he claims engage in unfair trade practices, including China, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea, as well as the European Union.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost more than 1,000 points upon the news, falling by 2.5%; the S&P 500 dropped 3.6%.
Trump’s erratic approach to the economy had already rattled markets, which dropped significantly in the first quarter of this year, and consumer confidence, which recently hit a twelve-year low.
“Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much,” former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted. “The best estimate of the loss from tariff policy is now [close] to $30 trillion or $300,000 per family of four.” “The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,” posted former vice president Mike Pence.
Trump claims he is imposing “reciprocal tariffs” and says they are about half of what other countries levy on U.S. goods. In fact, the numbers he is using for his claim that other countries are imposing high tariffs on U.S. goods are bonkers. Economist Paul Krugman points out that the European Union places tariffs of less than 3% on average on U.S. goods, while Trump maintained its tariffs are 39%.
Paul Krugman: Trump Goes Crazy on Trade
“Liberation Day” is even worse than expected
If you had any hopes that Trump would step back from the brink, this announcement, between the very high tariff rates and the complete falsehoods about what other countries do, should kill them.
March 30, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
On the Fox News Channel this morning, Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said: “President Trump has a long run vision of a golden age of America and we’re working really, really hard to get it out there in time. But I can’t give you any forward-looking guidance on what’s gonna happen this week. The president has got a heck of a lot of analysis before him, and he’s gonna make the right choice, I’m sure.”
The National Economic Council is the primary group the president uses to develop domestic and international economic policy, so the fact that Hassett appears to have no idea what’s coming is concerning. …
Other Trump regime officials appear similarly uninformed about Trump’s plans. Fox News Channel personality Shannon Bream asked Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, what to say to consumers who worry that tariffs are going to raise prices, he answered: “Trust in Trump.” He then claimed that “tariffs are tax cuts,” which makes sense only if he means that tariffs, which raise prices on consumers, might provide enough revenue for the government to enable Republicans to justify tax cuts on the wealthy and corporations.
Josh Dawsey and Ryan Felton of the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump warned the chief executive officers of “some of the country’s top auto manufacturers not to raise prices because of the 25% tariffs he has just put on cars and car parts, telling them that the tariffs are good for them.
On Saturday, Trump denied he had made such a request and told NBC News’s Kristen Welker that “I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American cars. We have plenty.” A White House aide told NBC News that the president was referring to foreign car prices.

Trump’s Tariffs Set to Make History and Break a System MAGA Loathes
His plans have sparked fears of a US recession and a global slowdown, as well as the end of a post-war order.
By Shawn Donnan, Enda Curran and Maeva Cousin, Bloomberg Economics
He is set this week to impose so-called reciprocal tariffs and other levies on what he has labeled “Liberation Day” — a move expected to cover a broader swath of trade than the infamous 1930 Smoot-Hawley duties that have long served as a cautionary tale about protectionism. It’s part of Trump’s wider project to dismantle the global trading system the US helped build out of that era’s wreckage, on his belief that Americans got a raw deal.
Financial markets are already rattled and officials in world capitals fear the policies could spark a US recession and a global slowdown.

Robert Reich: The shock market
It’s melting down. The consequences?
… To be sure, the stock market is not the economy. The current meltdown isn’t directly affecting most Americans.
Just over half of all the shares of stock owned by Americans are held by the richest 1 percent. Over 90 percent are held by the richest 10 percent.
But the indirect effects of the market meltdown are likely to be felt by most Americans. That’s because the richest 10 percent account for about half of all spending.
…most Americans live in a world in which they cannot pay more than they’re paying now. Most are living paycheck to paycheck as it is.
Tariffs are paid by importers, and importers will pass on as much of the extra costs to consumers as they can.
That’s called inflation.
So it’s frighteningly likely we’ll be heading toward both inflation and recession.
This horrifying combination is termed “stagflation,” and it’s particularly pernicious because the Fed has no clear tools for dealing with it.

The S&P 500 ended the quarter down 4.6%, its worst performance in three years. The Nasdaq 100 posted its worst quarter in nearly three years, down 8.3%, after a pair of warnings last week fanned anxieties about a possible pullback in the hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into data center infrastructure. Making matters worse for the US, the dollar hasn’t been behaving as normal, raising fears that America’s radical policy turns are opening the door for rival currencies to become havens.
Trump’s trade war continues to fuel concern the US economy could stall. Most economists still don’t anticipate America will fall into recession in the next year, but they do say the chance of a contraction has increased. And while many economists have spent the past three years being wrong on recession calls, another worry is the risk that a slowdown in growth will occur alongside accelerating inflation, the dreaded scenario known as stagflation.

Trump’s Science Policies Pose Long-Term Risk, Economists Warn
Since World War II, U.S. research funding has led to discoveries that fueled economic gains. Now cutbacks are seen as putting that legacy in jeopardy
By Ben Casselman
(NYT) President Trump’s tariffs could drive up prices. His efforts to reduce the federal work force could increase unemployment. But ask economists which of the administration’s policies they are most concerned about and many point to cuts to federal support for scientific research.
The Trump administration in recent weeks has canceled or frozen billions of dollars in federal grants made to researchers through the National Institutes of Health, and has moved to sharply curtail funding for academic medical centers and other institutions. It has also, through the initiative called the Department of Government Efficiency, tried to fire hundreds of workers at the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency. And it has revoked the visas of hundreds of foreign-born students.
To economists, the policies threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in emerging areas like artificial intelligence, and to leave Americans as a whole poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead.
Economists across a broad ideological spectrum argue that investments in scientific research — especially the kind of fundamental, early-stage research that is too risky to attract private investors — are among the most efficient uses of taxpayer dollars. Research has found that every dollar invested in research and development returns about $5 in economic gains, a figure that likely understates the true return because it doesn’t account for benefits that aren’t captured in measures of gross domestic product, like longer lives and increased leisure time.
Trump’s reciprocal tariffs will overturn decades of trade policy
(AP) — President Donald Trump is taking a blowtorch to the rules that have governed world trade for decades. The “reciprocal’’ tariffs that he is expected to announce Wednesday are likely to create chaos for global businesses and conflict with America’s allies and adversaries alike.
Economists don’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs. They’re a tax on importers that usually get passed on to consumers. But it’s possible that Trump’s reciprocal tariff threat could bring other countries to the table and get them to lower their own import taxes.
… The deficit, economists say, is a result of the unique features of the U.S. economy. Because the federal government runs a huge deficit, and American consumers like to spend so much, U.S. consumption and investment far outpaces savings. As a result, a chunk of that demand goes to overseas goods and services.
The U.S. covers the cost of the trade gap by essentially borrowing from overseas, in part by selling treasury securities and other assets.
“The trade deficit is really a macroeconomic imbalance,” said Kimberly Clausing, a UCLA economist and former Treasury official. “It comes from this lack of desire to save and this lack of desire to tax. Until you fix those things, we’ll run a trade imbalance.”

30 March
Trump’s “Liberation Day” is set to whack America’s economy
A rush of new tariffs will hurt growth, raise prices and worsen inequality
Adam Roberts. Digital editor:
(The Economist today newsletter) …we are looking ahead to a momentous date, April 2nd. Are you set to celebrate “Liberation Day”, as Donald Trump calls it?…Almost no one, of course, will relish the arrival of Mr Trump’s extra tariffs. Even if you thought higher taxes on imports made sense (they don’t), the cavalier way he threatens, imposes and sometimes removes them, is adding uncertainty for all. No wonder stockmarkets, consumer sentiment and other indicators point to a previously roaring economy slowing, perhaps sharply. Mr Trump may not be triggering an outright recession—not yet—but it’s clear that America is set for higher inflation and sluggish growth. Make America stagnate again?

24 March
The Wild Trump Theory Making the Rounds on Wall Street
QAnon for tariffs
By Rogé Karma
(The Atlantic) …have you considered the possibility that [Donald Trump’s tariff policy] is, in fact, the first step of a carefully orchestrated master plan to revive American manufacturing, reduce the national debt, reconfigure the international-alliance system, and deliver the greatest geopolitical deal of the century?
That is the thrust of a new theory that has been gaining currency in Washington, on Wall Street, and in the financial press. The grand bargain that Trump is supposedly planning to strike has even been given a name: the Mar-a-Lago Accord.

19-20 March
Paul Krugman: The Emperor’s New Philosophy Of drunkards, lampposts and economic doctrines
I thought I might weigh in to support and enlarge upon an exceptionally clear post by the always very good Adam Tooze about the commentariat’s sanewashing of Trumpian economic policy.
… My point is that Trump believes many blatantly false things that suit his prejudices. Why imagine that he and his courtiers have sophisticated ideas and a deep strategy when it comes to international economics? On the surface, Trump’s trade policy looks stupid and destructive. Dig deeper, and you discover that this first impression was completely valid. Trying to pretend otherwise is just misinforming readers.
Stockholm syndrome in Mar-a-Lago: The belief that “something must be done” and the sanewashing of economic policy in the age of Trump
Adam Tooze
(Chartbook 363 ) … We ask: who inside MAGA 2.0 is thinking and what are their thoughts? We then relate that to our own efforts to diagnose America’s history and the history of the world economy. At the very least we need to explain how Trump 2.0 happened. Sometimes we will find a match between a strand of policy from inside MAGA and our own analysis and it is tempting to label that as “MAGA for thinking people” and to look for continuities with the Biden team etc. That mode of analysis is reasonable. To historically minded people it is appealing for obvious reasons. But it puts us at risk of is underestimating the radicalism of the break marked by the Trump administration. In search of historical context we miss what is most historically significant. We avoid facing the conclusion that the vision of a Mar-a-Lago Accord may have more in common with grift, a protection racket or a facelift pandering to the ignorant vanity of an old man than with economic policy as we have hitherto known it. Faced with Trump, the risk is that conventional realism is a form of escapism.

Heather Cox Richardson March 13, 2025
The blame for the falling market in the United States today can be laid squarely at the feet of the new presidential administration, with the tariff war it has instigated and the sweeping cuts it has made to United States government employment. President Donald Trump and his staff insist that the pain he is inflicting on Americans will pay off in long-term economic development, but they have deliberately thrust a stick into the wheels of a strong economy.
It is an astonishing thing to watch a single man hamstring the United States economy. It is also astonishing to watch Republican senators try to convince the American people that a falling stock market and contracting economy is a good thing. …
Stocks Tumble Into Correction as Investors Sour on Trump
The S&P 500 is now more than 10 percent below its last record high — a line in the sand for investors worried about a sell-off gathering steam.

11 March
Trumponomics: The Man Behind a Grand ‘Mar-a-Lago’ Plan (podcast)
(Bloomberg) Over just a few weeks, US President Donald Trump has turned the Western security alliance on its head and unleashed a slew of tariff threats (and tariffs) on China, Canada and Mexico (with many reversals and retreats). At the same time, talk has intensified over a so called “Mar-a-Lago accord” named after Trump’s Florida home and aimed at deliberately weakening the dollar. On this week’s episode of Trumponomics, host Stephanie Flanders discusses this with guests Shawn Donnan, senior writer for economics with Bloomberg, and Mark Sobel, the US chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. What ties together Trump’s security and tariff bluster? A paper written in November 2024 by Stephen Miran, where the idea of such a deal first appeared. Miran, a former US Treasury official who went on to work as a strategist in the private sector, is now poised to lead Trump’s White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Trump, Bitcoin, and the Future of the Dollar
Carla Norrlöf
(Project Syndicate) By launching new trade wars and ordering the creation of a , Donald Trump is assuming that US trade partners will pay any price to maintain access to the American market. But if he is wrong about that, the dominance of the US dollar, and all the advantages it confers, could be lost indefinitely.
…the US government’s decision to join the reserve-diversification party raises serious doubts about the future of its own currency’s hegemony. If more countries or institutions decide to hold BTC instead of dollars, global demand for dollar reserves could decrease over the long term. Legitimizing a rival store of value may shake confidence in the greenback, eroding America’s global reserve-currency status and the advantages it confers. Without strong international demand for the dollar, the US could ultimately lose its “exorbitant privilege” to print and borrow at low interest rates. Endorsing BTC while defending dollar dominance thus requires a delicate balance.

10 March
US stock market loses $4 trillion in value as Trump plows ahead on tariffs
S&P 500 down over 8% from Feb 19 all-time high
Nasdaq confirmed 10% correction from its Dec peak last week
S&P 500 P/E moderates but still high vs historical average
Delta Air Lines cuts forecast on growing economic uncertainty
Tesla loses more than $125 bln in value in one day
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s tariffs have spooked investors, with fears of an economic downturn driving a stock market sell-off that has wiped out $4 trillion from the S&P 500’s peak last month, when Wall Street was cheering much of Trump’s agenda.
A barrage of new Trump policies has increased uncertainty for businesses, consumers and investors, notably back-and-forth tariff moves against major trading partners like Canada, Mexico and China.
The Trump Slump is now
You can’t take a battering ram to every major institution in America and expect the economy to do well
Robert Reich
Corporations are pulling back from investing in new productive capacity — additional jobs, equipment, factories — because Trump’s and Musk’s chaos makes it impossible for them to gauge what the future will bring. Joblessness is rising.
The S&P 500 was down more than 2 percent in [Monday] morning’s trading — after last week’s 3.1 percent drop (the biggest drop in six months) — signaling that investors are spooked.

7 March
Trump’s Crypto Reserve Is Really Happening -Now what?
By Ben Walsh
It’s hard to think of anything that would be less useful for America to stockpile.
(The Atlantic) Yesterday, the president signed an executive order creating both a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” and a “Digital Asset Stockpile” made up of different kinds of cryptocurrencies. The bitcoin stockpile, which presumably will be the larger of the two, amounts to “a virtual Fort Knox for digital gold,” Trump said during a crypto summit at the White House earlier today. “‘Never sell your bitcoin.’ That’s a little phrase that they have. I don’t know if that’s right or not. Who the hell knows.”
There are reasons for governments to stockpile essential commodities. America has a Strategic Petroleum Reserve to protect against disruptions in the global oil market or for use during natural disasters or other emergencies. China’s strategic pork reserve helps the government keep prices stable, and South Korea recently had to pull from its strategic cabbage reserve during peak kimchi season. But a crypto reserve would serve none of these functions. The ostensible idea is that stockpiling crypto could help “drive economic growth and technological leadership,” as a fact sheet for the executive order states. But unlike oil or even cabbage, crypto does not serve the core functioning of society. It’s a volatile, highly speculative asset with little proven real-world application that regular old U.S. dollars can’t already account for. It’s hard to think of anything that would be less useful for America to stockpile.

4 March
Mohamed A. El-Erian: US Recession Odds Are Becoming Unsettlingly High
It’s only a matter of time before economists start slashing growth forecasts for the American economy.
(Bloomberg) The notion of a US recession seemed remote just a few months ago, a mere blip on the radar of economic possibilities. More recently, however, that picture has started to change. A downturn, while still a risk scenario, is no longer unthinkable. A confluence of factors, from policy uncertainties to fragile financial markets, is casting a shadow over the world’s largest economy.
Several key financial indicators are already flashing yellow. The yield on 10-year Treasury bonds has fallen about 70 basis points in recent weeks, while oil prices have slipped below $70 a barrel. These moves coincide with a string of disappointing economic data releases, reflecting growing apprehension about the immediate consequences of President Donald Trump’s trade policies and public sector reforms. Indeed, judging from recent surveys, policy uncertainties have already dampened business and household confidence, clouding the economic outlook. This spreading weakness is manifesting itself in three distinct stages.

3 March
Prices rose along border ahead of Trump’s tariffs — now disruption looms
(AP) The prospect of a North American trade war has already thrown the global economy into turmoil, with consumer confidence tumbling, inflation worsening and the auto sector and other domestic manufacturers bracing for a downturn.
Trump dismissed concerns that tariffs are largely paid for by consumers through higher prices, saying: “It’s a myth.”
It is possible for a stronger U.S. dollar to offset some of the costs, but most economic modeling shows tariffs will effectively amount to billions of dollars in tax hikes nationwide. Along the border, the reality is that prices were already rising in anticipation of Trump’s announcement, and much more disruption now looms.

2 March
Trump names cryptocurrencies in strategic reserve, sending prices up
Trump names bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana and cardano for strategic reserve
Bitcoin and ether rise more than 10% on the news
Trump has moved quickly to back crypto industry policy priorities
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on social media announced the names of five digital assets he expects to include in a new U.S. strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies on Sunday, spiking the market value of each.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including bitcoin , ether , XRP , solana and cardano . The names had not previously been announced.
Trump Announces ‘Crypto Strategic Reserve’
(Forbes) President Donald Trump said Sunday the U.S. will create a “crypto strategic reserve” that includes major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum—boosting crypto prices—the latest effort by Trump to court the cryptocurrency industry as he’s become a major crypto backer in recent months.
A national crypto reserve will “elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks” Trump said, adding he directed his administration to “move forward on a Crypto Strategic Reserve” that includes cryptocurrencies XRP, solana and ADA.
He then added a second post saying the reserve will “obviously” include bitcoin and ethereum as the “heart of the Reserve,” saying he “loves” the top two cryptocurrencies.
Trump’s announcement Sunday builds on an executive order Trump issued Jan. 23 directing his administration to create a “working group” to propose a regulatory framework on digital assets, which includes evaluating a “national digital asset stockpile.”