In the second and third quarters of 2025, the U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in two years. Those growth rates were not “numbers unheard of,” or figures the U.S. “never had” before, as President Donald Trump has claimed.
In addition, economic experts told us that federal data do not support Trump’s claim that there was economic “stagflation” during the Biden administration and “the complete opposite” during Trump’s first year back in office. Inflation was high during much of Joe Biden’s presidency, but economic growth was not stagnant, another key indicator of stagflation, the experts said.
They also said that Trump’s tariff policies likely hindered economic growth, rather than helped spur it, as the president has suggested.
Trump made those claims in recent speeches and remarks, as well as in a late January opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.

