Trump blames Biden after US economy shrinks, as Senate effort to block tariffs falls short – as it happened

This blog has now closed. Read our latest story here

Donald Trump promptly claimed this morning that the contraction in the US economy had nothing to do with his tariff wars, repeated his habitual claim that this is all somehow his predecessor Joe Biden's fault, and predicted the economy would boom when tariffs kicked in. He wrote on his Truth Social platform:

This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's. I didn't take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden Overhang." This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!