WASHINGTON – Never mind the shrinking economy and dismal poll numbers.
President Donald Trump’s first 100 days have gone according to plan.
What would he do differently? Not a thing.
“I’ll tell you, that’s the toughest question I can have because I don’t really believe I’ve made mistakes,” Trump said in reply to a question at a NewsNation town hall on April 30. “We’re in a transition period. I think you’re going to see tremendous economic victories over the next period of a year.”
His comments came the same day as the Commerce Department reported the national economy − the total value of all goods and services in the country − shrank at an annual rate of 0.3% during the first three months of the year.
Trump blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, in a post on social media. “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” Trump wrote.
Stocks are down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 6% from Election Day, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 11%.
A series of polls gauging Trump’s first 100 days of his second term reported an approval rating about 41% or 42%, with more than half the respondents disapproving of his policies.
Trump accused pollsters of calling more Democrats than Republicans, after predicting that he would lose Wisconsin and the 2024 presidential election – and then he won both.
“They’re fake polls,” Trump said.
Trump put his faith in import tariffs, which sparked a worldwide trade war. To curb the costs on domestic goods, Trump reduced some facets of the tariffs on cars and said he expects to reach a deal with China.
“We’re going to make billions and billions of dollars, but it takes a little while,” Trump said. “That doesn’t happen overnight, but it will happen much faster than people understand.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump acknowledges no mistakes amid falling economy, approval ratings
