By the end of 2025, the US economy had faced a sharp slowdown in growth amid accelerating inflation, according to data from the US Department of Commerce.
According to the published figures, US GDP growth slipped to 1.4% in the fourth quarter, while inflation reached 3% year-on-year in December.
This trajectory may be linked to unusually prolonged government shutdowns, as well as a pullback in consumer spending.
Trump himself blamed the deterioration on Democrats, who refused to support the budget and in doing so triggered the shutdown, as well as on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who declined to cut interest rates.
“The Democratic strike cost the US at least two percentage points of GDP. No strikes! And lower interest rates. Powell, who was two days late—the worst!”, Trump wrote.
In earlier quarters of 2025, the US economy had been growing at a markedly faster pace. After GDP contracted by 0.5% in the first quarter—amid a surge in imports as companies rushed to bring in goods ahead of Trump’s new tariffs—the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 3.8% in the second quarter. In the third quarter, growth accelerated to 4.4%, the strongest reading in several years.
Still, taking into account the contraction at the start of the year and the slowdown toward its end, US GDP grew by 2.2% over the course of 2025—below the 2.8% recorded in 2024.