FROM ‘HE’S CRASHING THE ECONOMY’ TO ‘IT’S A MIRAGE.’ Go back three months, when the government released gross domestic product numbers for the first quarter of 2025. The report was that GDP fell 0.3% in the first quarter, later revised to 0.5%. That would have been disturbing except for the explanation: In anticipation of President Donald Trump‘s tariffs, many businesses increased their imports to stockpile as much as possible before the tariffs took effect. Those imports were essentially subtracted from GDP, resulting in the contraction.

But the president’s opponents did not care about such nuance. For Democrats and their allies in the press, the first quarter GDP numbers were an opportunity to attack, attack, attack. From the

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