Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers didn’t hold back when assessing President Donald Trump’s early economic performance.
In an appearance on CNN with Kate Bolduan, Summers said, “This has probably been the least successful first hundred days of a presidency on the economy in the last century.”
He echoed the same sentiment in a post on X, writing, “We have seen the stock market go down, the dollar go down, forecasts of unemployment go up, forecasts of inflation go up, forecasts on the odds of a recession go up. We’ve seen consumer confidence collapse. We’ve seen businesses take back all their previous earnings projections. So, this has been a disastrous hundred days for the US economy.”
Sharp Criticism of Economic Direction
Summers argued the turmoil isn’t due to global shocks or external events.
Instead, he said, it’s “the consequence of policy announcements by the president of the United States, principally with respect to tariffs.”
He described the administration’s early economic direction as a “quintessential self-inflicted policy wound,” adding that until the White House changes course, “our economic situation is only going to deteriorate.”
” Consumers are going to see higher prices from everything, from the clothes they buy to the houses, to the repairs they want to do on their houses.”
Pushback and Criticism
Summers’ remarks sparked a wave of backlash online. Critics accused him of using his platform to push a political narrative instead of providing objective analysis.
“This post by Summers isn’t analysis. It’s narrative warfare,” said one user who argued that the economic issues cited by Summers are “delayed consequences of the monetary supernova his own policy regime helped create.”
Others pointed to his past roles at Harvard and in the Clinton and Obama administrations.
“You might want to sit this one out,” referencing what he called Summers’ “personal debacles at Treasury and Harvard.”
Some questioned the credibility of his economic claims. “Cherry-picking data is sad,” wrote one user, while another one called Summers “incredibly dishonest” for describing the current economy as the worst in a century.
However, others came to Summers’ defense.
One user wrote, “Trump is directly responsible for the stock market, the coming recession, the slide in bonds and the dollar, and the world turning away from U.S. financial markets… Trump is economically illiterate and devastating what was the world’s best economy just 4 months ago.”
Another user commented, “He bankrupted all his businesses, what did you expect?”
Summers Still Concerned
Despite some pushback from MAGA, Summers doubled down on his concerns.
He warned that consumers will feel the consequences if the policy doesn’t change, citing higher prices on everything from clothing to home repairs.
“We are going in the wrong direction as a country economically right now,” he said.
While the White House has not responded directly to Summers’ comments, the debate highlights the deep divisions over how to assess the early days of Trump’s return to the presidency and what the long-term consequences could be.
IMAGE CREDIT: “Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers” by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Image adjusted for layout.