UPDATE: New York Times reports the American Economy Grew More Slowly at the end of 2025.
The U.S. economy slowed sharply at the end of 2025 to cap a volatile year in which consumer spending and an A.I. investment boom helped keep growth on track despite tariffs, uncertainty and the longest government shutdown in history.
Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the final three months of the year, the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was down from a 4.4 percent rate in the third quarter, partly because of the prolonged shutdown.
Inflation, which Mr. Trump promised to end “on day one,” picked up in 2025. The trade deficit in goods, which Mr. Trump promised to shrink, hit a record high. The manufacturing sector, which Mr. Trump promised to restore, shed jobs. [NYT Feb 21, 2025]
Despite Trump’s claims that he has fixed the affordability issue, Americans are not buying it.
UPDATE: Republican Candidates Getting Crushed at the Polls
Axios AM Reported on February 19th: Many Republican Voters are Staying Home:
Republicans are getting crushed in scores of state and local races, raising deep concerns about a deflated base refusing to show up to vote even in the most pro-Trump areas, Axios’ Alex Isenstadt reports.
- Why it matters: The numbers are startling. In race after race, Democrats are outpacing their 2024 performance by double digits, a clear sign of a yawning GOP enthusiasm gap.
By the numbers: Democrats have outperformed former Vice President Harris’ 2024 numbers by an average of 10.5 percentage points in the 20 state legislative districts that’ve held special elections this year.
- Democratic candidates outperformed Harris by even more — an average of 13.9 points — in the 67 state House and Senate races last year, according to The Downballot, which tracks state-level and congressional campaigns.
Republicans’ internal data aligns with polling showing declining support for GOP candidates.
- Many Republicans trace their troubles to Trump not being on the ballot this year or in 2028.
- But strategists acknowledge that some of his actions — including the administration’s reluctance to release more of the Epstein files — have turned off parts of his MAGA base, while energizing Democrats and anti-GOP independents.
- Polls have shown widespread dissatisfaction with Trump’s immigration crackdown and with how he’s handling the economy.
Zoom in: Since the start of the year, Republicans have suffered double-digit drop-offs from Trump’s 2024 performance in state legislative elections in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, northern and central Virginia, New York City, east-central Minnesota, and southeastern Connecticut.
- A GOP operative told Axios: “While it is tempting for many in our party to wish away these results, the pattern is clear that there is at least a current 10-point Democratic over-performance from Trump 2024 — and it’s built on a fired-up Democratic base and a sleepy GOP base.”
HOW TRUMP BLEW HIS CHANCE TO BE THE PRESIDENT AMERICANS WANTED
When Trump was first elected it was not clear who he was or what he stood for. He was not well-known because he had not run for office before. Prior bad behavior – like refusing to pay construction workers, or pay taxes, or the Access Hollywood tape– was rationalized away by some people who would say: “that was BEFORE he ran for president”.
Murkiness invited people to imagine who he was, to transfer to him some idealist hopes and dreams they wished for in their president. Americans wanted something bold and new. He seemed bold. He was outside the party system- so he was “new”. He claimed to be a populist leader. Who was Trump? Fill in the blank. That thinking also allowed many wealthy people to say “I don’t like what he says sometimes or how he acts -kinda crude-but I do like his policies.” What policies? They wouldn’t say. But here’s what they were thinking: “The ones that make rich people richer because I am a rich person.”
TRUMP 1.0
In his first term, Trump had people around him who tempered his worst instincts and helped him to pretend to be a good man, a president for All The People. They kept his secrets for him. We didn’t know he threw plates at the walls of the Oval Office when he got mad, like a toddler in his terrible twos leaving ketchup stains on the walls and shattered dishes for others to clean up. We didn’t know he secretly wanted to order National Guard members to shoot Black Lives Matters protesters. We needed another impeachment hearing to learn those things.
Yet even after we knew that, too many Americans elected him for a second term: Americans who wanted lower gas and egg prices and still believed Trump was a successful businessman and did not seem to realize that character matters in a leader.
TRUMP 2.0 IS THE REAL TRUMP
Now, after the first year of his second term, the mystery is over. We know who this man is. Trump has no one left to protect him from himself. He damages his image more every single day- from reposting a white supremacist’s video of the Obamas as apes, to attacking our Olympic athletes who speak honestly about their disappointment with our government: Trump will be Trump.
For that reason, we know without a doubt that he is the most despicable, corrupt, cruel, self-centered, heartless and vindictive man we have ever had the misfortune to elect as our president. His immigration policies are pitting armed, masked ICE and border patrol agents against unarmed Americans who express their first amendment right to protest on the streets of our cities causing untold damage and destruction to people’s lives and small businesses. Little children are being taken away from their parents and housed in detention centers in Minnesota. Their lives will be ruined forever by Trump. Americans have been shot at and murdered by these agents for the “crime” of being at a protest scene and too close to an angry CPB agent. Alex Pretti was trying to help a woman being attacked by one of these agents. He was murdered. Shot 10 times for being a Good Samaritan. Armed agents have turned formerly calm neighborhoods into war zones.
Trump wrecks pretty much everything he gets involved in including the White House. He comes out with shocking verbal attacks on other democracies, our allies, endless greedy corruption and self-enrichment, tariffs that hurt American consumers, the end of protective climate change policies and appointment of cabinet members who have been trashing and dismantling what was an imperfect but functioning government, only to replace it with one that serves the oligarchy… all of this has become clear and all of it is dragging his approvals down down down into the toilet.
APPROVAL RATINGS IN THE TOILET
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has fallen five percentage points to 36%, the lowest of his second term, while disapproval has risen to 60%.
The expanded base that narrowly got him elected for a second term, which included Hispanic, Black, independent and younger especially male voters, are abandoning him now.
- A January 2026 Pew Research Center survey indicated that support for his policies fell to 27%, down from 35% a year prior.
- Key Voter Erosion: Cook Political Report noted a sharp decline among independents, young people, and Latinos.
Amy Walters of Cook Political also sees slippage with Trump’s core working-class white voters.
Trump’s once impenetrable wall of support among working-class white voters is also showing cracks, driven by disappointment with Trump’s handling of the economy.
That should set off alarm bells for the GOP — and not just in their race to keep the House. In a year when control of the Senate runs through working-class states like Ohio, Iowa, Alaska, Maine and Michigan, these voters will have even more outsized influence than usual.
If the election were held today, Kamala Harris would probably win.
TRUMP IS NOT THE ONLY UGLY AMERICAN
Don’t forget Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski and the rest of this despicable administration.
As the real Trump gets more exposed along with the nasty people he has put in charge of government, his base will continue to dwindle, leaving him with the most extreme right-wing people in our country: white supremacists, misogynists, racist, antisemites and ever loyal, misguided and misinformed cult members who watch Fox and listen to social media goofballs like Candace Owens and Megyn Kelly (who I am sorry to say I encouraged to become a broadcast journalist when she worked with me as her career counselor).
Trump has to please the awful people who remain in his base. That means that Trump will be forced by the angry right-wing to pursue their ever more extreme agenda. Which will cause more Americans to pull away from him because Americans are not right-wing extremists and will not support what this administration is doing.
AMERICANS REJECT TRUMP
Politico did a good summary of the evidence that shows Americans are turning against Trump and that Trump has backed down as a result.
- A federal grand jury unanimously rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to indict six Democratic lawmakers over a video they made urging service members to refuse unlawful orders. It’s at least the fifth time that charges against Trump’s adversaries or protesters have been turned away by a grand jury. A federal judge also shut down Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to punish Navy veteran Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) over his role in the video.
- ICE raids: Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced an end to the 10-week ICE surge in Minneapolis yesterday.
- National Guard: Trump withdrew federalized National Guard troops from L.A., Chicago and Portland after repeated legal defeats and opposition from local leaders.
- Tariffs: Six House Republicans joined Democrats to pass a resolution rescinding Trump’s tariffs on Canada. The vote became possible only after a smaller group of Republicans staged a floor rebellion against GOP leadership.
- Epstein files: Trump’s push to shut down MAGA’s Jeffrey Epstein obsession backfired spectacularly. The Justice Department is still grappling with backlash, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) voicing rare criticism over revelations that DOJ tracked what lawmakers searched while reviewing the unredacted files.
- Racism: A chorus of Republicans, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), condemned Trump’s reposting of a video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The White House initially defended the decision to post the video, but removed it from Trump’s account, blaming a staffer. Later, the president said he “didn’t make a mistake.”
- Greenland: Trump dominated Davos last month with his threats to seize Greenland by any means necessary — only to retreat amid market turmoil, European fury, warnings from congressional Republicans, and a vague “deal” promising the U.S. greater access to the Arctic territory.
- Fed: The DOJ’s criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell has drawn deep skepticism from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has vowed to block confirmation of Powell’s successor, Kevin Warsh, unless the probe is dropped.
WHAT GETS TRUMP TO BACK DOWN?
Americans are learning what gets Trump to back down. It’s pretty simple. Nothing to do with helping the American people have better lives. Because he is a huge narcissist, he cannot stand to LOOK bad. So, he will back down at least temporarily if:
1) There’s a serious drop in the Dow.
2) White skinned American citizens are murdered by his paramilitary in Minneapolis and the citizens of Minneapolis keep protesting ICE and CBP day after day after day in large numbers.
3) He gets push back from his rich buddies. Or someone pays him off to get a pardon.
4) Courts rebuff him.
Looking bad is the key to forcing his hand. But he has to look bad to people he cares about. That means we need more Republicans and rich people and people with moral codes to stand up to him.
EVERY DAY AMERICANS ARE BRAVER THAN THE CORPORATE COWARDS WHO CAVED TO TRUMP
Twenty people serving on a grand jury who all, every one of them, refused to indict six senators who made a video reminding military men and women not to follow illegal orders…something every new recruit is taught on their first days in uniform.
Everyday moms in Minneapolis are boxing food for immigrants who are too afraid to leave their homes. Suburban moms are picking up children at bus stops so their immigrant parents are not kidnapped by ICE or CBP.
Americans are telling their elected representatives to stand up to Trump.
Americans are resisting by cancelling their subscriptions to companies that support Trump’s bad policies.
CORPORATIONS AND LAW FIRMS SHOULD JOIN THE RESISTANCE
Not all corporations caved. Not all law firms. Not all universities. But those that did should revisit their decision and revoke those agreements with this administration. They were made under duress and should be challenged as unenforceable. They should band together to stand up against what has taken shape as a fascist regime and a president who is repulsive to the majority of Americans.