Here’s the truth, assuming you still believe in such things: After three years of growth, the U.S. economy shrunk in the first quarter of this year, and it’s all thanks to President Donald Trump and his bizarre, old-timey obsession with tariffs. The cowardly president was quick to blame the bad economic news on former President Joe Biden, because, as we’ve learned over the past decade, nothing is ever Trump’s fault – even when it is. The president posted this gibberish April 30 on his increasingly inaccurately named Truth Social site: “Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!” So much for Republicans being the party of personal responsibility. Trump has demolished the strong economy Biden left him Biden left Trump with an envy-of-the-world economy that was humming along. The tariffs – which for the 10 millionth time are a tax on American consumers that won’t accomplish what Trump thinks they’ll accomplish – are almost entirely to blame for America’s economic shrinkage. “If you were looking for a playbook on how to slow a healthy economy, this seems like a good example,” said Scott Helfstein, Global X's Head of Investment Strategy. “The continual sequence of policy reversals has led to very high levels of uncertainty for businesses and investors.” Those high levels of uncertainty aren’t Biden’s fault. They’re the fault of the current president, who doesn’t seem to know his tail end from his elbow and keeps slapping tariffs on things like an excited child with a price gun and nothing to lose. On the economy, all Trump can do is play the blame game “Growth has simply vanished,” Chris Rupkey, chief economist at the financial research firm Fwdbonds, wrote to the firm’s clients. “Maybe some of this negativity is due to a rush to bring in imports before the tariffs go up, but there is simply no way for policy advisers to sugarcoat this.” Oh, don’t worry, the coward Trump can find a way to sugarcoat it. “We came in on Jan. 20. So, this is Biden,” the president said during an April 30 Cabinet meeting. “And you can even say the next quarter is sort of Biden.” Sure. And maybe the quarter after that or the possible recession coming later this year will be Biden’s fault as well. Who’s to say? Let's remember, even when the economy was cooking and post-COVID inflation was going down under Biden, Republicans and the right-wing media could barely contain their outrage at "Bidenomics." But when Trump shrinks the economy for the first time in several years? Crickets from those hypocrites. Numbers don't lie: Biden's economy was strong. Trump's tariffs killed it. In 2024, under the aforementioned Biden, the S&P 500 grew 23%. As The Wall Street Journal reported April 29, the day before stocks reacted to this sorrowful first-quarter economic news: “The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped 6.8% since Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. It was the worst start to a presidency for the index since the start of Richard Nixon's second term in 1973, according to Dow Jones Market Data.” The two presidents are not the same, and the former isn’t at all to blame for the latter’s financial bungling. Stock market falling, economy shrinking, consumer sentiment down According to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, U.S. consumer sentiment dropped again in April, the fourth consecutive month that has happened. These are not good developments if you like having job security, money in the bank and the ability to afford groceries. Making them worse is the fact that Trump waltzed into the White House claiming he would usher in an economic Golden Age. Instead, he has flushed the American economy down a golden toilet. And he won’t admit to any mistakes or show any sign of a course correction. The only way the man would acknowledge the existence of humility is if it told him how fantastic he is. Now is not the time to be patient with Trump's handling of the economy So here we are with our shrunken economy, looking at empty ports and staring at pain yet to be felt, with a so-called leader who’s only capable of blaming others for his own failures. Trump is imploring Americans to “BE PATIENT!!!” with his economic recklessness. That, quite clearly, is the worst thing any of us could possibly do. Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk