U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with reporters, as he departs for travel to Pennsylvania from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C. U.S., July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
President Donald Trump often claims that he inherited a terrible economy from former President Joe Biden and turned it around overnight. The United States, however, enjoyed historically low unemployment rates under Biden, although so far, unemployment hasn't changed significantly from what it was under the last president. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. unemployment was at 4.1 percent in June 2025.
Economist Kathryn Edwards offered analysis of Trump's handling of the economy during a mid-July appearance on The New Republic's podcast, "The Daily Blast." Host Greg Sargent describes Edwards as "one of the better decoders of Trumponomics out there today," and she was highly critical of Trump's economic policies during the interview — from tariffs to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Edwards attacked "reality star" Trump's tariffs as inflationary, warning that the worst price hikes are yet to come.
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The economist told Sargent, "What a lot of economists are seeing in the data based on the specific things that got more expensive is that this is the start of tariffs hitting the overall price data. Consumers tried to shield themselves. Companies and firms and sellers tried to shield their customers and themselves. But we can only hold back the tide for so long. You make things more expensive, prices will eventually have to go up."
Edwards continued, "And so, I think what a lot of people are looking at when they look at this data is this is the first bit of going up. It's nowhere near done if these tariffs stay in effect."
Trump is angrily attacking U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates, but according to Edwards, his anti-Powell arguments don't hold up.
"In order for Powell and the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates," Edwards told Sargent, "they need to see one of three things. One, annual price growth in the economy hits 2.0 percent exactly; it falls to the target level. Two, it doesn't fall to the target level, but it's clearly on track to go — and there's nothing of concern standing between, say, 2.2 or 2.1 and this final 2 percent. Or (three), there is severe trouble in the labor market and we need to lower interest rates to prevent the economy from slipping into recession and the labor market getting worse."
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Edwards continued, "None of those three things have happened. We're not at 2 percent, we're at 2.7. We're not falling in price growth, we're rising in price growth…. There's no justification for lowering rates now, and there is justification for keeping them high."
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Listen to the full New Republic podcast at this link or read the transcript here.