Trump inherits bleak economic landscape

Published January 24, 2025 5:05am ET



The Oval Office may be a familiar place to the newly reinaugurated President Donald Trump, but he inherited an economy that couldn’t be more different than the one he encountered the last time he entered the White House.

Although former President Barack Obama presided over the slowest economic recovery in the post-war era, his decision not to overshoot the size of his early administration stimulus package in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and a Republican majority House two years later forcing spending restraints, meant Trump entered office with low inflation and interest rates. Trump then added a secret sauce to the economy to unleash consistent economic growth and job gains.

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