Data proves Trump 'inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets'

Two weeks ahead of the official start of his second presidency, Donald Trump is slamming the United States as a "disaster" on social media.

In a New York Times report published Sunday morning, White House correspondent Peter Baker lays out how current statistics defy the president-elect's claim.

"New data reported in the past few days indicate that murders are way down, illegal immigration at the southern border has fallen even below where it was when Mr. Trump left office and roaring stock markets finished their best two years in a quarter-century," Baker writes.

"Jobs are up, wages are rising and the economy is growing as fast as it did during Mr. Trump’s presidency," the Times correspondent continues. "Unemployment is as low as it was just before the Covid-19 pandemic and near its historic best. Domestic energy production is higher than it has ever been," Baker adds.

Furthermore, Baker reports "the America that Mr. Trump will inherit from President [Joe] Biden" beginning January 20 "is actually in better shape than that bequeathed to any newly elected president since George W. Bush came into office in 2001."

During his 2024 presidential campaign — and just weeks before his second term — Trump claimed "immigration, crime and inflation are out of control," Baker notes. However, he adds, the president-elect is moving back into the White House with an enviable hand to play, one that other presidents would have dearly loved on their opening day."

"President Barack Obama inherited two foreign wars and an epic financial crisis. Mr. Biden inherited a devastating pandemic and the resulting economic turmoil."

Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Sandi told the Times that the MAGA leader "is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets."

Zandi emphasized, "The U.S. economy is the envy of the rest of the world, as it is the only significant economy that is growing more quickly post-pandemic than prepandemic."

Similarly, University of Virginia’s Miller Center's director William J. Antholis told Baker that regardless of Trump's claims, the incoming president is "stepping into an improving situation."

Bates adds, "After inheriting an economy in free-fall and skyrocketing violent crime, President Biden is proud to hand his successor the best-performing economy on earth, the lowest violent crime rates in over 50 years, and the lowest border crossings in over four years.

Trump-donating companies ready to dodge tariffs

According to The Guardian's Callum Jones, some companies that donated to Trump's 2016 campaign dodged tariffs during his first term as president.

"With Donald Trump threatening to impose steep tariffs upon his return to office this month," Jones explains in an article published on January 6. "U.S. firms are bracing for impact. But an analysis of Trump's last presidency identified one way to boost their chances of avoiding the levies: donating to the Republican Party."

Jones continues, "While the initial stage of the president-elect's tariff agenda is designed to hit America's largest trading partners — Canada, Mexico and China — it is U.S. firms that pick up the bill, paying duties imposed on the goods they buy from these markets. Such additional costs can prove devastating."

The Guardian reporter cites a study published on July 29, 2024. The study names some of the companies that dodged tariffs during Trump's first term.

"The federal government typically allows a carefully selected group of businesses from paying such levies," Jones notes. "Thousands of companies applied for exemptions, and permission to import items without paying a new tariff, during Trump's first presidency."

Jesus Salas, an associate finance professor at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, anticipates that the same thing will happen during Trump's second term and finds it "shocking" that companies that supported Democrats in 2016 were, according to the study, less likely to avoid tariffs.

Jones quotes Salas as saying, "(There are) many reasons to think some of this behavior is going to continue…. It's going to be the same staff, probably the same ideas, so we'd assume it's going to be the same behavior."