David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush who takes credit for introducing the phrase “axis of evil” in Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address, is considered a leading voice in the waning neoconservative movement that once dominated the Republican Party.
After leaving the White House, Frum became a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank focused on economics. On Election Day 2024, Frum — disenchanted by the MAGA takeover of the GOP — announced that he had left the Republican Party.
Today, Frum shared a report from ABC News showing that the first 100 days of Trump’s second term put the brakes on the economy, and then shoved it in reverse: “The U.S. economy shrank at start of Trump’s second term, with GDP declining at a 0.3% annualized rate over three months ending in March.”
Frum added: “Trump pushed the US economy into decline by his ignorance and malice, enabled and abetted by advisers who were variously obnoxious, stupid, cowardly, and/or crazy.”
Trump pushed the US economy into decline by his ignorance and malice, enabled and abetted by advisers who were variously obnoxious, stupid, cowardly, and/or crazy https://t.co/W6Iu1roFkP
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 30, 2025
In Frum’s recently released article in The Atlantic, ‘The Coming Economic Nightmare,’ the former White House wordsmith warned: “Trump’s tariffs could cause stagflation for the first time in decades. It may go on for a long, long time.”
When the White House celebrated Trump’s 100th Day in office and claimed “President Trump’s economic policy is driving down inflation, gas, and grocery costs, while jobs boom, investments pour in, and America First proves it’s not just a slogan — it’s a winning formula,” Frum replied: “The essence of the Trump communications philosophy is that anybody dumb enough to believe anything Trump says is a fool who deserves to be lied to.”
Frum asked: “How many months into the Trump Recession will Trump continue pretending that the country is enjoying an economic boom? Four? Five? More?”
University of Miami Professor of Economics Ricardo V. Lago replied to Frum: “This is how it is in dictatorships in general and was in communist regimes in particular.”
Lago shared the ABC News exclusive interview with Trump (below), who claimed that tourism in America is “way up.” Lago added: “you can fool all people for some time, and some people all of the time, but you can’t fool all people all the time.”
"you can fool all people for some time, and some people all of the time, but you can't fool all people all the time" https://t.co/4W6X6fcJnm
— Ricardo V. Lago (@ricardovlago) April 30, 2025
Bloomberg reported on April 15 that “The US economy is set to lose billions of dollars in revenue in 2025 from a pullback in foreign tourism and boycotts of American products.”
According to the International Trade Administration “Arrivals of non-citizens to the US by plane dropped almost 10% in March from a year earlier,” and Goldman Sachs estimates “in a worst-case scenario, the hit this year from reduced travel and boycotts could total 0.3% of gross domestic product, which would amount to almost $90 billion.”
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