While the corporate media has fixated on recent stock market declines as evidence that President Donald Trump’s economic agenda is failing, the press has largely ignored the host of other indicators that the economy is on strong footing and poised to boom in the months and years ahead.
A recent New York Times article titled “Trump’s Policies Have Shaken a Once-Solid Economic Outlook” is indicative of the doom-and-gloom rhetoric now popular among mainstream outlets. The Economist has been even more aggressively partisan, running the headline, “Donald Trump’s economic delusions are already hurting America.”
One wonders when, exactly, the Times believes the country’s economic outlook was last considered “solid.” Recession fears plagued Joe Biden’s entire presidency, small business optimism plummeted, and 20 percent cumulative inflation decimated the household finances of tens of millions of Americans. Voters consistently said “the economy” was their top concern throughout last year’s campaign.
There is no denying that Trump inherited an economy in a severe state of decline from his predecessor. In this respect, what he has accomplished so far is nothing short of extraordinary.
On the single biggest economic issue of Biden’s term, inflation, Trump has already seen some noteworthy successes. Inflation slowed in February for the first time since last September to 2.8 percent, beating expectations. As White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pointed out, airfares in particular saw a sharp drop, decreasing four percent from January. On March 13, gas prices also hit a four-year low.
Egg prices, which Democrats have sought to hammer the Trump administration over, have fallen as well, with wholesale prices now roughly half of what they were just one month ago. As AMAC Newsline previously reported, the spike in prices earlier this year was largely due to the mass culling of chickens under the Biden administration as a result of multiple bird flu outbreaks.
Mortgage rates are also coming down, last month dipping to their lowest levels since December. After a slow start to the year, experts predict that the housing market could heat up in March. That could be more good news for owners looking to find a new house or first-time buyers who have been waiting for a good time to enter the market.
Since returning to office, Trump has also embarked on a program of targeted deregulation to save Americans money. According to government data, regulatory cuts so far have saved a family of four $2,100. The rollback of Biden-era automobile regulations alone is expected to save consumers a total of $1.13 trillion.
But perhaps the clearest early sign of the success of Trump’s economic policies has been the flood of companies looking to invest in the United States – a phenomenon that has proven critics of his tariff policies dead wrong.
“Thanks to our America First policies, we’ve had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks,” Trump said in his recent address to a joint session of Congress.
Indeed, according to a White House press release, in just the first few weeks of Trump’s second term, “Apple announced a historic $500 billion investment, which will create 20,000 new U.S.-based jobs,” and “GE Aerospace announced a $1 billion investment in its manufacturing operations across 16 states — creating 5,000 new jobs.”
“Meanwhile,” the press release added, “to avoid tariffs, electronics giants Samsung and LG ‘are considering moving their plants in Mexico to the U.S.,’ Hyundai Motor is planning to ‘localize production in the U.S,’ Nissan is considering moving production from Mexico to the U.S., and Honda is expected to produce its next-generation Civic hybrid model in Indiana — among many other international companies contemplating such a move.”
On his second day in office, Trump also announced the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure project in history, with tech firms OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle investing up to $500 million in the United States. This investment will create as many as 100,000 American jobs while also putting the United States on better footing to compete with China in the AI race.
American manufacturing has also seen a resurgence. Taiwanese company TSMC has announced a $100 billion investment in semiconductor chip manufacturing, Diageo North America is spending $415 million on a new manufacturing facility in Alabama, and Saica Group plans to build a $110 million facility in Indiana.
Stellantis, which owns Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge, will hire 1,500 employees as part of a $5 billion investment in its Belvidere, Illinois assembly plant. Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. plans to invest $8 billion in the United States over the next several years and just opened a $1 billion facility in North Carolina. DAMAC Properties has committed to investing $20 billion in the United States to build data centers.
Despite the corporate media’s unwillingness to acknowledge these major successes, the American people appear to be taking notice. A recent NBC News poll found that 44 percent of respondents believe the country is headed in the right direction – up from 27 percent in January, and the highest number in that poll since 2012.
From historic investments in manufacturing and technology to declining inflation and job creation, the early signs of Trump’s second-term economic policies speak for themselves.
Kamden Mulder is a senior at Hillsdale College pursuing a degree in American Studies and Journalism. You can follow her on X @kamdenmulder_.
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