FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, May 1, 2024, in Waukesha, Wis. Numbers show that the economy during Trump's presidency has never lived up to his own hype. But polling shows Americans are more confident about his economic leadership than that of President Joe Biden. The question of who can best steer the U.S. economy could be a deciding factor in who wins November's presidential election.
If the 2020 pandemic is excluded, growth after inflation averaged 2.67% under Trump, according to figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Include the pandemic-induced recession and that average drops to an anemic 1.45%. Deficits have also run high under Biden, as he signed into law a third round of pandemic aid and other initiatives to address climate change, build infrastructure and invest in U.S. manufacturing. His budget deficits: $2.8 trillion , $1.38 trillion and $1.7 trillion .
Trump entered the White House with inflation already low, largely because of the slow recovery from the Great Recession, when financial markets collapsed and millions of people lost their homes to foreclosure.