Trump tries to evade blame as he feels economic pressure: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, we break down how President Donald Trump is trying to shift the blame as he confronts economic headwinds. Plus, Andrea Mitchell writes that Trump’s frustrations with the lack of progress in the Russia-Ukraine war peace talks may be at a tipping point. 

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— Adam Wollner

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Trump tries to evade blame as he feels economic pressure

President Donald Trump promised to deliver lower prices and economic prosperity on his first day in office.

Now, amid a series of negative economic indicators 100 days in, he’s seeking to reframe some of his campaign trail pledges and shift the blame to his predecessor.  

Report shows a shrinking economy: According to an initial measurement released Wednesday by the Commerce Department, the U.S. economy contracted 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, marking the first negative reading since 2022, Rob Wile reports. Economists were expecting the GDP to grow 0.4% in the first three months of the year, following an increase of 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024. 

The report also showed that consumer spending climbed 1.8%, the weakest pace since mid-2023, and that inflation remained firm.

Following the GDP report, stock markets saw heavy declines, but finished the day higher. 

Blame game: In response, Trump said it was former President Joe Biden’s fault, Katherine Doyle reports.  

“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers.”

Trump made a similar argument during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, encouraging critics to “give us a pass on the first month,” saying that they were “getting used to things, right?”

“You probably saw some numbers today, and I have to start off by saying that’s Biden — that’s not Trump,” Trump said. “We came in and I was very against everything that Biden was doing in terms of the economy. … We took over his mess in so many different ways.” 

And in an interview Tuesday with ABC News, Trump insisted he had prepared Americans for a “transition period,” despite his promises of immediate economic relief, as Henry J. Gomez notes.  

These remarks stand in contrast to what Trump said when the S&P 500 soared after his election victory.  

“Everyone is calling it the — I don’t want to say this. It’s too braggadocious, but we’ll say it anyway — the Trump effect,” Trump said during a rally in Washington, D.C., on the eve of his inauguration.  

What the polls say: Recent surveys show that voters largely attribute current economic conditions to Trump’s policies.

A CNBC poll found that 54% of adults said Trump’s economic policies would have a negative impact, now or in the future, while 60% of registered voters in an NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll said Trump was responsible for the current economic conditions. An equal number of registered voters in a New York Times/Siena College poll blamed Trump and Biden for the biggest challenges facing the economy.  

On Capitol Hill: The Senate is set to vote on a resolution that would undo the sweeping tariffs that Trump imposed on most countries earlier this month, Rebecca Shabad, Frank Thorp V, Kate Santaliz and Julie Tsirkin report. 

Related read: Trump’s economy at 100 days: Unprecedented uncertainty reigns, by Rob Wile 

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Trump’s patience with Russia-Ukraine peace talks runs short

By Andrea Mitchell

As President Donald Trump celebrates the milestone of passing 100 days in his second term, he is clearly running out of patience with his lack of progress in achieving a ceasefire in Ukraine, a war he had promised he could settle in 24 hours.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued what sounded like an ultimatum to both sides, authorizing his spokesperson to announce: “We are now at the time to deliver concrete proposals. If there is not progress, the U.S. will step back as mediators.”

It was a harder line than Rubio had taken days earlier on “Meet the Press,” when he told Kristen Welker: “This week is going to be a really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in.” 

Fueling the president’s frustration, according to aides, is Russia’s bombing of Kyiv and other civilian targets more than a month after Ukraine accepted a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire. 

Trump’s impatience also contributed to his unprecedented one-on-one with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at the Vatican, captured in that powerful image of the two leaders sitting knee-to-knee under the Michelangelo frescoes. And it was amplified when, on the flight home from Rome, Trump posted on Truth Social that Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukrainian’s cities “makes me think… he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’”

The Vatican face-to-face came days after special envoy Steve Witkoff and Rubio abruptly cancelled their attendance to a negotiating session in London among foreign ministers from Ukraine, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the U.S. The Ukrainians and the Europeans traded ceasefire proposals. Notably, in Rubio’s demand that both sides now had to produce concrete proposals or else the U.S. would withdraw from the talks, he put the onus on both Russia and Ukraine, not acknowledging Ukraine had already put a new proposal on the table. 

The U.S. and Ukraine agreed to the minerals deal Trump wanted Wednesday, one that was revised after the Oval Office blowup between him and Zelenskyy last month.

Now the question is whether Trump is ready to punish Russia and agree that Ukraine was the victim of a foreign invasion, or withdraw entirely as a peacemaker in a war he couldn’t stop on Day One.

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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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