Trump revealed weak GDP data 40 minutes before official release via Truth Social
Q4 2025 GDP growth slowed to 1.4%, down 3 percentage points from previous quarter
Trump has previously disclosed economic data early, raising policy violation concerns
Trump continued criticism of Fed Chair Powell, demanding lower interest rates
📖 Full Retelling
President Donald Trump revealed on Truth Social forty minutes before the official release that U.S. economic growth had sharply slowed in the fourth quarter of 2025, attributing the weaker performance to a 'Democrat Shutdown' and criticizing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates quickly enough. At 7:50 AM ET, Trump posted that 'The Democrat Shutdown cost the U.S.A. at least two points in GDP. That's why they are doing it, in mini form, again,' just before the Commerce Department reported that U.S. gross domestic product rose at an annualized rate of only 1.4% in Q4 2025, a significant decline of three percentage points from the previous quarter. The government shutdown, which began October 1 and lasted 43 days, was widely expected to impact economic performance, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating it could shrink annualized real GDP growth by up to 2 percentage points, though Dow Jones economists had forecasted a more robust 2.5% gain. Trump's early disclosure of economic data follows a pattern of similar behavior that has raised concerns about potential policy violations and whether traders might be receiving inappropriate advance information, as the Office of Management and Budget explicitly prohibits executive branch officials from commenting on pending economic data until 30 minutes after its official release.
🏷️ Themes
Economic Policy, Government Transparency, Data Integrity
Market value of goods and services produced within a country
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all of the final goods and services which are produced and rendered during a specific period of time by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic activity of a country or region. The major compone...
The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of financial panics (particularly the panic of 1907) led to th...
Truth Social is an American alt-tech social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), an American company majority-owned by US president Donald Trump. It has been called a "Twitter clone" that competes with Parler, Gab, and Mastodon in trying to provide an alternative to Twitter...
President of the United States (2017–2021; since 2025)
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.
Born into a wealthy New York City family, Trump graduated from the...
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Original Source
Forty minutes before the federal government revealed that economic growth sharply slowed in the last quarter, President Donald Trump dropped a hint that the incoming data would be weaker. "The Democrat Shutdown cost the U.S.A. at least two points in GDP. That's why they are doing it, in mini form, again," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post at 7:50 a.m. ET. At 8:30 a.m., the Commerce Department reported that U.S. gross domestic product rose at an annualized rate of just 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025. That's a decline of three percentage points from the previous three-month period. Trump's Friday morning post referred to last year's record-length government shutdown, which began Oct. 1 — the start of the fourth quarter — and lasted 43 days. The federal funding lapse was expected to take a toll on GDP. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office estimated that, depending on its length, the shutdown would shrink annualized real GDP growth in Q4 by up to 2 percentage points. But economists from Dow Jones were still estimating a 2.5% gain for the period. Trump has previously revealed economic data before its official release, raising questions about possible policy violations and concerns that traders may be getting a heads up from the president, who can be briefed on the data before it comes out. The Office of Management and Budget not only prohibits executive branch officials from commenting early on such releases, but forbids public statements about them until 30 minutes after they have come out. In a Truth Social post in January, Trump indirectly revealed forthcoming nonfarm payrolls data. The White House at the time admitted that there was an "inadvertent public disclosure of aggregate data" while attacking the media for "grasping at straws to foment another fake controversy." Read more CNBC politics coverage Dueling PACs take center stage in midterm elections over AI regulation Trump order pushes glyphosate production; Roundup chemical hated by MAHA Sen. Warren tells ...
