Former Trump White House economic advisor lauds the US economy's performance under Biden: 'I was wrong'

Alia Shoaib
·2 min read
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  • Trump's former White House economic advisor said that his predictions of a recession under Biden had been wrong.

  • Larry Kudlow said the "entire forecasting fraternity" had been incorrect.

  • "If I were he, I would be bragging about it too," Kudlow said about new GDP data.

Former President Donald Trump's White House economic advisor said the US economy was faring far better under President Joe Biden than he expected.

Larry Kudlow said on Thursday that he had been wrong to predict an economic recession under the Democratic president.

"Mea culpa — I was wrong about the slowdown and the recession. So was the entire forecasting fraternity," Kudlow said on Fox Business, where he is a host.

As his fellow Fox News host Sandra Smith disagrees with his assessment, he doubled down: "The Fed, everyone was wrong."

A January 25 report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed that the country's gross domestic production had grown by 3.3% in the last quarter of 2023 — adding to a string of positive economic reports emerging.

"If I were he, I would be bragging about it too," Kudlow said about Biden's response to the new GDP data.

It is an important admission — the state of the economy is likely to play a central role in the upcoming presidential election, which is expected to be a rematch between Biden and Trump. The increasingly buoyant economy could present a challenge to Trump's campaign strategy.

In response to the data, Biden said in a statement: "That is three years in a row of growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up on my watch."

Consumer spending US economy markets
A resilient consumer has helped stave off a recession.VIEW press / Getty Images

Kudlow was director of the National Economic Council under Trump for nearly three years.

Kudlow added that despite a wave of major lay-offs across the country, the unemployment rate remains low, and monthly job gains are generally positive.

Figures released on Friday were more good news for the Biden administration. They revealed that the US economy added 353,000 jobs in January, almost double what economists had estimated.

Tom Simons, US economist at Jefferies, described the figures as "stunning" that left him "near speechless," reported The Financial Times.

Read the original article on Business Insider