News
‘Chilling’: Amid Recession Alarms and Market Nosedive Trump White House Blames Biden
It’s Monday, March 10, and Donald Trump has been president for 50 days. The stock market continues its steep decline, with the Dow losing nearly 2,500 points over the past month. Today, it closed down nearly 900 points—after losing over 1100—reportedly due in large part to the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s tariffs, their chaotic implementation, and concerns over the possible recession they may bring. Meanwhile, a government shutdown looms. If Congress fails to reach a budget deal by midnight Friday—and President Trump has barely addressed the issue in public—the federal government will shut down at 12:01 AM on Saturday. While Congressional Republicans will likely need some Democratic votes, and it’s unclear how many, if any, they can count on, some political commentators are warning that Speaker Johnson is “devising a trap for congressional Democrats.”
You would not know any of this if you just walked through President Trump’s Truth Social page, where he spent an hour on Monday afternoon posting links to right-wing and far-right websites praising the “Trump effect,” claiming Trump is “rebuilding domestic manufacturing” (something President Joe Biden actually did,) bragging about the historically low number of migrants ICE apprehended at the Southwest border (he said he would deport millions), claiming his tariffs will not cause inflation (despite economists’ warnings), quoting his border “czar” saying he will “bring hell” to sanctuary cities, boasting that European nations are boosting their militaries (because they see the U.S. as aligning with Russia and hence unreliable), and posting a screenshot claiming he has the highest approval rating since being inaugurated (despite reliable polls saying the opposite).
Headlines make clear, however: investors and consumers alike are worried about a Trump recession.
READ MORE: ‘Cowardice and Cruelty’: Rubio Slammed for ‘Huge Mistake’ Destroying American Influence
“Stock Rout Picks Up Steam With Recession Warnings Blaring” (Bloomberg)
“Dow falls 1,100 points in market rout after Trump says he won’t rule out a recession” (CNN)
“White House pushes back against recession talk as household worries grow” (Reuters)
“Stocks slump yet again as fears grow about tariffs — and a recession” (NPR)
Just days ago, the headline at Foreign Policy was, “Trump’s Economy Is Flashing Red”:
“Trade wars, rising prices, falling confidence, and sinking stock markets are not what Wall Street or Main Street voted for.”
The Guardian on Monday reported on the Trump economic crisis.
“Wall Street falls as tariff fears grip markets,” The Guardian’s headline reveals.
“Boom! The US stock market has opened sharply lower, as fears that a trade war could spark an American recession sweep Wall Street,” it explains. After detailing how markets opened lower and continued to fall in early trading, it notes, “This follows last week’s selloff, in which the S&P 500 fell by over 3%, its worst run since early September.”
And it warns about the impact on Americans.
“Stocks are sliding today after China today imposed reciprical tariffs on US imports, targeting agricultural products, in response to the 10% tariff imposed by the US on Chinese imports. Beijing’s tariffs will make American goods, such as soyabeans, pork, beef, chicken and cotton more expensive for Chinese consumers, and may lead importers to buy goods from elsewhere instead, hitting sales for US farmers.”
Most importantly, here’s how the UK-based paper explained the cause: “Hopes that Donald Trump’s more erratic actions could be reined in by the markets appear to be being eroded, after the US president failed to rule out a recession in his weekend interview with Fox. Instead, Trump spoke about how there would be ‘a period of transition,’ implying the White House was relaxed about economic damage, expecting it to be short-term.”
‘Chilling’ and ‘Kind of Mystifying’
Former U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, a seven-term Republican of Pennsylvania, told MSNBC Monday afternoon that Trump’s actions are having a “chilling” effect on the economy, and said it is “kind of mystifying” that the President “is behaving so recklessly with respect to the stewardship of this economy.”
Accusing Trump of trying to “undermine” North American economic systems, Dent said Trump’s tariffs “will likely cause recessions in Canada and Mexico, and create higher prices here and disrupt manufacturing and agriculture, so that’s going to be very negative for us.”
“He’s also, at the same time, is bad mouthing Europe every day, a major trading partner with us,” Dent added, observing that amidst all of this, Trump is “talking about greater rapprochement with Russia, which has an economy smaller than some of our states.”
READ MORE: ‘You’re Not Supposed to Be Asking That’: Trump Refuses to Answer Questions About Musk
Dent described Trump as “rather destructive and reckless,” noting he “does not understand” the consequences his tariffs will have on American manufacturers and farmers.
Despite Trump’s cycle of tariff threats, implementations, walk-backs, and renewed tariffs—along with his mass firing of potentially hundreds of thousands of government employees in an effort to shrink the federal workforce—his National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett, is pinning all the blame for the bad economic news on President Joe Biden.
Former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, Jason Furman, apparently responding to President Trump’s remarks over the weekend, during which he said the U.S. could expect a period of “transition” as his economic policies take effect.
“If you are implementing a credible plan that entails short-term pain for long-term gain the stock market will go up not down,” Furman, a professor of economics, wrote Monday afternoon.
‘We’ve Got a Biden Economy’ White House Advisor Says
Hassett served as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the first Trump administration. He is known for his faulty prediction about the DOW reaching 36,000 in 2004 — it did not until 2024, under President Joe Biden. He is also known for his false prediction that by May 0f 2020 COVID deaths would drop to nearly zero. At least 1.2 million people in the U.S. to date have died from COVID.
On Monday Hassett blamed President Biden for Trump’s bad economic results, while calling massive disruptions, like Monday drop in the markets, as “some blips in the data.”
Fox News’ Jessica Tarlov, co-host of “The Five,” responded: “Strange that Biden never had these crappy numbers when it was actually his economy.”
Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen mocked Hassett: “Oh, right, this is still the Biden economy, except for how the Biden economy had a record high market and now we’re in a market crash. Got it.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Hassett: “We’ve got a Biden economy. Still, most of Biden’s policies are in place. If you look at the Atlanta Fed GDP now number, it’s showing negative first quarter, which is kind of a metric of the inheritance of President Biden.”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 10, 2025 at 11:01 AM
READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene Supports Infecting Kids at Measles ‘Parties’ as Outbreaks Turn Deadly
Image via Reuters
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
