Trump Criticized For Claiming Biden Is Responsible For Stocks' Rout: 'Not Difficult To Understand'

President Donald Trump is being criticized online for taking credit when the stock market is climbing and blaming his predecessor, Joe Biden, as they slide on Wednesday following news that the GDP declined in the first quarter of the year.

"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!!!" Trump said on Wednesday.

However, many users online were quick to contrast the statement with one from January 29, 2024, when Trump claimed during the Biden administration that stocks were climbing because polls showed him ahead in the electoral race. "This is the Trump stock market because my polls against Biden are so good that investors are projecting that I will win, and that will drive the market up - everything else is terrible (watch the Middle East!) and record setting inflation has already taken its toll. Make America great again!" Trump said in caps at the time.

Criticism didn't take long to materialize. "It was the Trump stock market before, because it was going up. Now it's the Biden stock market, because it's going down. This is not difficult to understand," said Ian Bremmer, head of Eurasia Group.

Stocks are sliding on Wednesday after the Commerce Department showed that the economy contracted 0.3% in the first quarter of the year. Economists had expected it to climb by 0.4%, still a slide compared with the 2.4% experienced in the last quarter of 2024. It is the first negative reading since 2022. Consumer spending also climbed at the weakest pace since mid-2023.

Trump's tariffs could have already plunged the country into recession and drive unemployment to recession-like levels by the end of 2025, economists warn, as companies brace for rising costs and potential job cuts.

"If the president does not reverse course, he will increase the unemployment rate to recessionary levels," Michael Strain, Georgetown University professor and the American Enterprise Institute's director of economic policy studies, told CNBC in early April. Some high-profile CEOs like JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and BlackRock's Larry Fink say the U.S. will enter a recession as a result of the tariffs, with some saying that it is already taking place.