Cantwell Statement on Commerce Department Report Showing Shrinking Economy Under Trump
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a report on the state of the economy over the first three months of 2025. The report showed that the country’s gross domestic product shrank by 0.3% during the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, released the following statement:
“Today’s GDP numbers are another warning sign our economy is moving in the wrong direction. The economy shrunk in the first quarter when it should be growing. The Trump tariffs are a drag on the economy and American families will continue to feel the pain.”
The Commerce Department report follows months of tariff whiplash from the Trump administration, during which the president erratically and unilaterally announced, imposed, raised, dropped, and reimposed a series of blanket and industry-specific tariffs on imports coming to the United States. In January 2025, it was widely expected that GDP growth would be at least 2% in the first quarter of 2025 - but that changed after President Trump announced his tariffs. Shortly after the Commerce Department report was released, he posted on Truth Social that the declining economy “has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS” and is instead a holdover from former President Joe Biden’s economy. Under the last quarter of President Biden’s administration, the GDP grew 2.4%.
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