Even as a majority of economists predict a recession is coming over the next two years due to Donald Trump’s economic policies, the president dismissed those worries as “fake news.”
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Trump said over the weekend, “I don’t think we’re having a recession. We’re doing tremendously well. Our consumers are rich. I gave a tremendous tax cut, and they’re loaded up with money.”
He claimed that the media is “doing everything they can to crash the economy” as a way to hurt his 2020 campaign.
Of course, despite Trump’s rhetoric, a sizable 74 percent of economists say they believe a recession will happen by the end of 2021.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber told Trump on Monday that it’s laughable to suggest that the best way to avoid such an economic downturn is to simply avoid talking about it.
“No recession, no planning for recession, don’t even talk about it,” the MSNBC host said of Trump’s attitude to the potential downturn. “Avoiding talking about it in the hopes that it will go away, and then avoiding any planning about it, that’s ineffective and pretty short-sighted for the U.S. government.”
Video:
Trump’s denial about a possible recession is only making an economic downturn more likely. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/0scfriGEXo
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) August 19, 2019
Melber said:
No recession, no planning for recession, don’t even talk about it. You know, looking at this today, there are some things in life that are more likely to happen if you do talk and think about them too much. Like going to a kitchen, going to maybe your kitchen to get a snack right now. I bet if you keep thinking about it and imagining it or talking about it, you might find yourself getting up, letting the newscast play in the background, and grabbing that snack that you’ve been thinking about. But a macroeconomic recession is not like getting a snack. No single person increases its likelihood by talking about it. Not even the president. So avoiding talking about it in the hopes that it will go away, and then avoiding any planning about it, that’s ineffective and pretty short-sighted for the U.S. government. As for Trump’s claim that you just heard there, that economists don’t expect a recession? Well, one out of four don’t. The other 74% of economists are now expecting a recession by the end of 2021 in a new survey out today.
Trump’s denial is making a recession even more likely
It’s already clear that Donald Trump’s trade war has contributed to the pessimism being felt by economic experts and the markets, who now see a recession in the near future.
But the economic problem on the horizon will be made much worse if we have a president who refuses to acknowledge when the economy is struggling or prepare for the possibility that there will soon be a slowdown. After all, if you refuse to admit that there is a problem – especially one you created – then you won’t be capable of fixing it.
If Donald Trump truly wanted to avoid a recession, he would end his disastrous trade wars and work with both parties in Congress to enact preventative measures to stave off an economic crash.
But to do that, he’d first have to admit that his policies have brought us to the brink of the first recession in a decade. There’s zero chance that will happen.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
