After years of portraying Donald Trump as a mastermind of economic growth, Fox News is now struggling to explain why the U.S. economy shrank during the first quarter of 2025.
For the first time since early 2022, gross domestic product fell 0.3 % from January through March, marking a sharp reversal from the 2.4 percent growth in the last quarter of 2024.
Fox anchor Bill Hemmer seemed visibly uneasy as he delivered the news.
“Quarter four was 2.4 % growth. Quarter three was 3.1. Quarter two is 3.0,” Hemmer listed.
“And now we’re at negative 0.3 %.”
As he tried to make sense of the numbers, the moment captured a shift in tone from a network that had long credited Trump with steering the economy upward.
Maria Bartiromo, another longtime Trump booster, announced the downturn with an almost funereal tone: “It is a contraction, negative three-tenths of a percent. This is the first contraction since the first quarter of 2022,” she said.
“Markets this morning have reversed… The Dow Industrials right now down 115 points.”
Why the Economy Shrunk
What’s behind the shrinking economy?
According to the Commerce Department, the contraction was mostly due to a massive spike in imports, up 41.3 %, as businesses raced to stock up ahead of new Trump tariffs. CNBC reported.
Because imports count against GDP, this surge took more than five percentage points off the overall number.
Economists Point to Tariffs and Uncertainty
Economists say the cause is clear.
“There is simply no way for policy advisors to sugar-coat this. Growth has simply vanished,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds.
Despite Fox’s best efforts to balance the messaging, even they can’t ignore the numbers. The economy has hit a wall.
Consumer spending slowed to 1.8 %, federal spending fell 5.1 %, and inflation is ticking up again.
The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures price index, jumped to 3.6 % in the first quarter, complicating any potential interest rate cuts.
Business Investment Up, But Markets Wobble
And yet, business investment surged up 21.9 %, as companies poured money into equipment, likely to avoid future tariff costs.
This silver lining hasn’t stopped markets from reacting nervously. Stocks slipped and Treasury yields rose following the report.
Trump Shifts Blame
Still, Trump deflected responsibility. In a Truth Social post, he wrote, “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.”
The Narrative Is Breaking Down
For years, Fox News has treated Trump as a financial wizard.
Now, with GDP shrinking, they face a dilemma: admit that his policies are hurting growth, or spin the downturn as someone else’s fault. So far, they appear to be doing both.
As David Pakman put it during his show, “This isn’t a blip. This is not a weather event. Everything is happening exactly the way economists warned.”
The myth of Trump as an untouchable economic genius is cracking under the weight of real data, and even Fox News can’t cover it up forever.
IMAGE CREDIT: “President Donald J. Trump and his national security team meet in the Situation Room of the White House” by Daniel Torok, The White House. Licensed under U.S. Government Work. Image adjusted for layout.