To the editor,

We have recently been told by VP Vance that the Trump Administration inherited a "dumpster fire" of an economy. Trump's inauguration speech included the line that "American decline stops now." Many voters were convinced by Musk's deluge of $250 million worth of negative political ads from July to November 2024, that such was the case.

Many economists had a very different perception of the US economy as of Jan. 20, 2025. For example, Mark Sandi, Moody's Analytics chief economist’s view is that "Trump is inheriting an economy as good as it ever gets...The US economy is the envy of the world as it is the only significant economy that is growing more quickly post-pandemic than pre-pandemic." University of Virginia's Miller Center's conservative economist Wm Anthers stated that Trump "...is stepping in to an improving economic situation... After inheriting an economy in free fall...President Biden will hand his successor the best performing economy on earth.”  Peter Bates of the NY Times wrote  "America is in better economic shape than bequeathed to any newly elected president since George Bush in 2001." It is assumed that inflation was part of their economic evaluations.  Axios’ report on job growth ranked the past four presidencies as follows:  Trump, a net growth of 2.1 million in four years (4 million jobs were lost due to the pandemic); G.W. Bush, 5.2 million in eight years; Obama, 7.1 million in eight years; Biden, 16 million in four years (boosted by pandemic recovery spending}.

Trump is in the process of taking the country in a very different economic direction. If it fails the administration will likely try to falsely blame it on the poor economy they inherited from Biden. If it succeeds Trump will take plenty of credit. That's politics. An accurate perception of the American economy now, should help voters evaluate the performance of the Trump/GOP economy by the midterms in 2026.

Ron Ginsbach

Elmwood