Trump Says He Hopes Economy Crashes ‘During This Next 12 Months’

The American economy ended 2023 ahead of economists' predictions, posting good numbers across a number of economic metrics, including inflation, job growth, and unemployment.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that he hopes that whatever downturn the economy takes, he would prefer that it happens before he takes office. While being interviewed by Lou Dobbs on Lindell TV, Trump drew parallels to the presidency of Herbert Hoover, suggesting that the current economic stability is tenuous and sustained merely by the previous administration’s efforts, The Hill reported. “We have an economy that’s so fragile, and the only reason it’s running now is it’s running off the fumes of what we did,” Trump said. “It’s just running off the fumes.”

Trump also briefly mentioned that he expects the markets to crash, saying, “And when there’s a crash — I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president I just don’t want to be, Herbert Hoover.”

In December, President Joe Biden referred to Trump at a campaign reception in Boston, comparing him to Hoover while correcting Trump’s revised version of events. Biden told the crowd gathered at the Westin Boston Seaport District Hotel, “Now, for the reason that I’m here today, specifically, is to thank you all. You know, when I came to office, the pandemic was raging, and the economy was reeling. In the four years Donald Trump was president — and he’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover who actually lost jobs in a four-year period. And that’s why I often re- — think of him as Donald ‘Herbert Hoover’ Trump.”

The American economy ended 2023 ahead of economists’ predictions, posting good numbers across several economic metrics, including inflation, job growth, and unemployment. During a Jan. 5 interview with CNN, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described the economic conditions, explaining, “What we’re seeing now I think we can describe as a soft landing, and my hope is that it will continue.”

Yellen gave credit for the strong economic performance to the work ethic of the American people but also praised the incentives created by President Biden. “The American people did it,” Yellen said. “The American people go to work every day, participate in the labor market, form new businesses. But President Biden has tried to create incentives that give Americans the tools they need to help this economy grow.”

Biden’s three key pieces of policy, the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, form the bedrock of his economic philosophy or “Bidenomics,” essentially working counter to the trickle-down economic theory espoused by former President Ronald Reagan. Instead of placing resources at the top, Biden says his economic vision is focused on building from the bottom and middle of the economic pyramid.