Biden campaign pounces on Trump’s prediction of an economic crash

Biden’s campaign aides see the GOP frontrunner’s comments as an opening to push their economic arguments amid their own struggles with voters frustrated with the president’s handling of the economy. Plans are underway to lean into Trump’s comments, including a paid media campaign for Wednesday around CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate and Fox News’ townhall with Trump, a source familiar with the discussions said.

“Donald Trump should just say he doesn’t give a damn about people, because that’s exactly what he’s telling the American people when he says he hopes the economy crashes,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement first provided to CNN. “In his relentless pursuit of power and retribution, Donald Trump is rooting for a reality where millions of Americans lose their jobs and live with the crushing anxiety of figuring out how to afford basic needs.”

Trump made the prediction in an interview Monday as he looks to sharpen his own economic arguments – including against Biden – heading into the Republican primary contests, which kick off with the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

“When there’s a crash, I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president – I just don’t want to be Herbert Hoover,” Trump said in an interview that aired Monday on the right-wing platform Lindell TV.

The stock market crashed during President Herbert Hoover’s first year in office in 1929, setting the course for the Great Depression. Biden already has turned to making a comparison between Hoover and Trump during his campaign events.

“He’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover who actually lost jobs in a four-year period,” Biden said at a campaign fundraiser in December. “And that’s why I often think of him as Donald ‘Herbert Hoover’ Trump.”

The White House piled on to the criticism on Tuesday with White House spokesperson Andrew Bates saying, “A commander in chief’s duty is to always put the American people first; never to hope that hard-working families suffer economic pain for their own political benefit.”

It marks the campaign’s latest effort to ramp up their attacks on Trump, who they view as their likely opponent in November. On Friday, Biden opened the year with a forceful condemnation of his predecessor, painting him as a direct threat to democracy who puts his own political power over the will of the people.

The focus on the economy was notable on Tuesday as Biden’s camp wasn’t expected to weigh in on Trump’s appearance in a federal appeals court as the former president’s legal team argued he should be immune from prosecution for actions he took after the 2020 election, sources familiar with the approach say.

The steer-clear strategy tracks with how Biden has approached most of Trump’s court cases, refraining from weighing in on the specific legal issues at hand in order to avoid any perception of political interference.

While Biden has made his argument that Trump is a threat to democracy central to his reelection pitch, the former president’s hope for an economic crash – and the potential opening it provided Democrats – was a chance for Biden to home in on a key issue.

Voters have consistently listed the economy among their top concerns heading into November’s election. Seven in 10 Americans believe economic conditions in the US are poor, according to a CNN poll released last month, and Americans said their views on the economy aligned more closely with the Republican Party than with the Democratic Party.

Biden has spent much of the last year promoting his “Bidenomics” messaging through campaign events and advertising campaigns, but so far has struggled to move the needle with voters who have negative perceptions of how Biden’s policies have affected them.

But the sour voter perceptions come amid some improving economic signs which the White House and campaign are quick to tout, including cooling inflation, lower gas prices and rising wages. In a speech appealing to Black voters on Monday, Biden tried to highlight efforts to lower prescription drug costs, including capping insulin at $35 for Medicare enrollees and giving Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen defended the state of the economy in a Friday interview with CNN.

“There has been a lot of pessimism about the economy that’s really proven unwarranted. A year ago, most forecasters believed we would fall into a recession. Obviously, that hasn’t happened,” Yellen said, adding, “We have a good strong labor market.”

Biden’s advisers acknowledge it will take time for some of these economic bright spots to seep into the American psyche, with the hope they have time to sell their message about the benefits of the president’s policies before Election Day. And they are hoping the contrast with Trump will help.

“President Biden has delivered where Trump has failed the American people. On day one, he got to work fixing the economic crisis Trump left behind by helping to create over 14 million jobs, including bringing back hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, and lowering costs for families,” said Chavez Rodriguez. “The bottom line: President Biden wakes up every day working and rooting for the American people. Donald Trump spends every day worried about himself.”

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