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President Donald Trump said the US economy is a mixture of his enacted policies and the effects of the Biden administration in a wide-ranging interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.”
“I think the good parts are the ‘Trump economy’ and the bad parts are the ‘Biden economy’ because he’s done a terrible job,” Trump said in the interview that aired Sunday.
Trump recently completed his first 100 days in office, with 66% of Americans saying they are pessimistic (29%) or afraid (37%) about the economy, according to a CNN/SSRS poll released Monday. Just 34% say they feel enthusiastic or optimistic. Overall, 69% of the public considers an economic recession in the next year to be at least somewhat likely, including 32% who say that’s very likely.
Trump took credit for bringing costs down. “I was able to get down the costs. But even that, it takes a while to get them down. But we got them down good,” he said.
Average grocery prices were about 2.41% higher in March 2025 than they were in March 2024, Consumer Price Index data shows. This was the highest year-over-year grocery inflation rate since August 2023.
Welker asked Trump if he would “take responsibility” for the volatile stock market, which steeply declined after he announced sweeping, reciprocal tariffs.
“I’ve only just been here for a little more than three months. But the stock market, look at what’s happened in the last short period of time. Didn’t it have nine or 10 days in a row, or 11 days, where it’s gone up? And the tariffs have just started kicking in. And we’re doing really well,” Trump said.
On Friday, the S&P 500 closed at 5,686.67, down 6% since January 21, the first trading session of Trump’s term. On April 9, the S&P surged 9.5%, its best daily performance in nearly 17 years, after Trump paused tariffs on most nations.
“What’s going to happen with the market? I can’t tell you, but I can tell you, our country has gotten a lot stronger, and eventually it’ll be a country like no other,” Trump said on April 6, while downplaying stock losses and adding, “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
Trump has provided little reassurance to Americans and business owners about the short- and long-term effects of his economic policies, like the imposed 145% tariff on Chinese imports, the removal of the de minimis exemption, rounds of tariffs on auto imports and a universal 10% tariff rate during the 90-day pause on most reciprocal tariffs.
Welker asked Trump, “You’re not taking the possibility that (some of) these tariffs could be permanent off the table?”