Instead, the trade war has clearly hurt U.S. manufacturing. First, many U.S. manufacturers depend heavily on imported parts and other inputs; the trade war is disrupting their supply chains. So the tweeter in chief has bungled his way into a Trump slump, even if it isn’t a full-blown recession, at least so far. And while many presidents have found themselves confronting politically damaging economic adversity, Trump is, as I said, unique in that he really did this to himself. Trump being Trump, it’s a good bet that he’ll soon be denouncing troubling economic data as fake news; I wouldn’t be surprised to see political pressure on the statistical agencies to report better numbers.

Source: International New York Times October 03, 2019 21:22 UTC