The US economy has shrunk, in its worst performance for three years. On the 101st day of his second presidency, Donald Trump insists his tariffs are not to blame – but the data shows an imports rush played a part. Listen to the latest episode of The World podcast as you scroll.
Wednesday 30 April 2025 15:30, UK
More than 40,000 people have signed a petition calling for Donald Trump to be barred from addressing the UK parliament on his state visit.
The US president appeared delighted back in February when Sir Keir Starmer presented him with an invitation from the King to an unprecedented second state visit.
But just one week after the petition was launched, 43,000 people have backed it.
Watch: Starmer hands Trump the invitation from the King back in February
„President Trump has shown a consistent disregard for democratic values,“ Corin Dalby, the campaigner behind the Change.org petition, has said.
„He has made troubling remarks about the UK and its institutions, and is unable to clearly condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine – which all UK political parties have strongly opposed.
„The UK parliament should not provide a platform to a figure whose actions and words are so at odds with the principles we hold dear.“
It’s worth noting that Trump didn’t address parliament during his last state visit in 2019, with then-speaker John Bercow saying he would oppose such a move.
The new petition calls on current speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and his counterpart in the Lords, Lord McFall, to adopt the same stance.
There are warnings Americans could start seeing shortages in a matter of weeks because of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
„It’s likely to be concentrated in categories where the US is heavily dependent on Chinese manufacturing and there aren’t a lot of alternatives,“ Judah Levine, director of freight platform Freightos, said.
He warned that furniture, baby products and plastic goods, including toys, could be among the items hit the most.
But that impact is already being felt, with the chief executive of toymaker Basic Fun saying he paused shipments following Trump’s tariff plan.
Jay Foreman halted shipments of Tonka Trucks, Care Bears and other toys from China after Trump’s announcement at the start of the month.
„Customers will find Basic Fun toys in stores for a month or two but very quickly we will be out of stock and stock product will disappear from store shelves,“ he said.
The knock-on effect of Trump’s tariff announcement is also being felt in the games industry.
Kevin Brusky, who owns small tabletop game publisher APE Games, said he has around 7,000 copies of three different games sitting in a warehouse in China.
He explained that the tariff bill of about $25,000 would wipe out his profit, and he has resorted to launching a Kickstarter campaign to help pay for the cost of the duties.
Earlier, we looked at some comments from Donald Trump’s interview, broadcast yesterday on ABC, during what was the 100th day of his second term in the White House.
The interview covered a range of other topics, with some key excerpts summarised here:
‚Would hate to think‘ people thought he was authoritarian
The president was questioned about his unprecedented use of executive powers, which many critics have said are being deployed to avoid the democratic processes enshrined in the US constitution.
„What do you say to people who are concerned you are taking, seizing too much power and becoming an authoritarian president like we haven’t had before?“ interview Terry Moran asked.
„No, I would hate them to think that,“ Trump replied.
„I’m doing one thing: I’m making America great again. We have a country that was failing. We have a country that was laughed at all over the world. We had a leader that was grossly incompetent. He should have never been there.“
Admits Putin may be ‚tapping‘ him along
Trump had said in a social media post over the weekend that he was unhappy with Russia’s continuing bombardment of Ukraine – saying „there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days“ and that „it makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently“.
Asked about the notion that the Russian president was „tapping“ him along, Trump told Moran: „It’s possible.
„Yeah, that’s possible. Sure. He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that he would like to stop the war.“
„You believe that?“ Moran interjected.
„If… if it weren’t for me, I think he’d want to take over the whole country, personally,“ Trump said.
„I always felt… so when I left, there wasn’t even a chance that this would happen. When Biden got involved, I won’t say whether or not he handled it properly, but obviously it wasn’t good, because the war started.“
Asked if he believed Putin wants peace, Trump said: „I think he does, yes.“
The president continued: „I think Putin wanted all of Ukraine,“ repeating his claim that Putin invaded because Biden was in office, and saying: „I think if I didn’t win the election, he would have gotten all of Ukraine.“
„And because of me, I do believe that… he’s willing to stop the fighting,“ he added.
Declines to say he has 100% confidence in Hegseth
Asked about defence secretary Peter Hegseth, who has faced criticism since his appointment, Trump said he was „a talented guy“ who is going to be „a very good defence – hopefully a great defence secretary.“
But when pressed on whether he had 100% confidence in Hegseth, the president said: „I don’t have a 100% confidence in anything, OK? Anything. Do I have a 100%? It’s a stupid question.“
While Donald Trump has claimed the shrinking US economy is not down to his tariffs, workers at American ports have expressed their concerns.
The director of the Port of Los Angeles warned last week that arrivals into the port will fall drastically within two weeks.
Gene Seroka said arrivals will „drop by 35% as essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers has ceased“.
He added that cargo from South East Asia „is much softer than normal with tariffs now in place“.
Meanwhile, the founder of a company working on worldwide cargo shipments has said ocean container bookings from China to the US have dropped 60% after Trump’s tariffs announcement earlier this month.
Ryan Petersen, founder of Flexport, said ocean carriers have reduced their capacity by cancelling 25% of their sailings.
We’ve just had this response from Donald Trump, who has taken to Truth Social.
He puts the blame with Joe Biden, saying it’s „Biden’s stock market, not Trump’s“.
As we’ve been reporting, the first US economic growth figures covering Trump 2.0 have been published, showing the economy shrank at an annualised rate of 0.3% between January and March.
The data showed the main culprit was a surge in imports to beat trade tariffs, which have been on the rise since Trump won the presidential election.
Our Business Live presenter Darren McCaffrey has explained that most economists are now „effectively expecting a recession this year“ in the US, adding „that is not good news for Trump“.
There’s been more bad news today about the economy linked to Donald Trump’s tariffs, as we’ve been reporting here.
But what does the fall in US GDP mean elsewhere in the world?
The American figures were released on the back of European Union growth data, which also covered the pre-trade war first quarter.
Eurostat estimates showed a better than expected 0.4% quarterly growth rate – driven largely by Spain, our business and economics reporter James Sillars explains.
The 20 nations sharing the euro currency had been expected to collectively deliver a 0.2% figure, confirming lacklustre output improvements of the past two years.
Stimulus by the new German government and European Central Bank interest rate cuts are widely expected to help in overturning that trend.
Germany, which is exiting two years of recession, recorded preliminary growth of 0.2%.
UK data, due next month, is predicted to show a similar rate.
By James Sillars, business and economics reporter
The first US economic growth figures covering Trump 2.0 are out – and make for extremely grim reading at the White House.
The Commerce Department has reported, in a preliminary reading, that the world’s largest economy contracted during the first three months of the year.
Economists and financial markets had largely expected growth of 0.3%.
But the measure showed that the economy shrank at an annualised rate (a calculation of performance over a 12-month period, as opposed to just one quarter) of 0.3% between January and March.
That was the worst performance for three years and sharply down on the solid 2.4% rate of growth measured over the previous three months.
So far, tariffs having opposite effect to what was intended
The data showed the main culprit was a surge in imports – stockpiling to beat trade tariffs threatened after confirmation that Donald Trump had won a second presidential term.
The US trade deficit – public enemy number one as far as Trump is concerned – has widened sharply since December.
That’s in stark contrast to his central mission of cutting that gap between the value of America’s exports and imports.
The rush to avoid tariffs has beaten several monthly records, with the deficit in goods trade hitting a new high in March.
True impact not yet known
Analysts say that while the headline figure appears to be a disaster for Trump, the impact from the hoarding of imported goods distorts the true picture of US economic health.
More important, many argue, will be how the commencement of the main trade war this month will play out.
There are fears that inflation will rise sharply due to higher import costs being passed on, limiting the US central bank’s ability to cut interest rates for consumers and businesses alike.
All this at a time when stock markets and the dollar are still reeling from the effects of the „Liberation Day“ trade salvoes.
Will there be a recession?
The International Monetary Fund recently forecast annual growth of 1.8% for the US this year.
But some economists see a 50/50 chance of a recession ahead.
US futures showed further falls for stock markets on Wall Street at the open.
How Trump responds will be the most eagerly anticipated information for investors moving forward.
US GDP fell by 0.3% in the first quarter of this year, it’s just been announced.
Sky’s Darren McCaffrey has been explaining the fall live on air, speaking to presenter Jayne Secker.
McCaffrey says most economists are now „effectively expecting a recession this year in the United States“.
„That is not good news for Donald Trump,“ he adds.
We’ll be bringing you the latest figures about US economic growth very shortly on Sky News.
As we reported earlier (see 12.29 post), economists are predicting a sharp slowdown, largely because of Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
Watch along below.
In this new world of Donald Trump 2.0, famous faces from the Biden era have vanished – including Kamala Harris.
The former vice president lost the 2024 presidential election to Trump.
Perhaps understandably, she’s not sought the limelight much since, particularly once the transition from the Biden government to the Trump one was complete.
But tonight she will be speaking at a gala for Emerge America, an organisation that recruits female Democratic candidates, according to our US colleagues at NBC News.
„We are so excited to have former Vice President @kamalaharris giving the keynote to celebrate 20 years of Emerge and address the first 100 days of the Trump administration,“ Emerge America said in a post on X.
The speech marks the organisation’s 20th anniversary.
Tickets range from $25 for virtual attendees and up to $50,000 for gala sponsors.
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Trump latest: US economy shrinks in worst performance for three years – but president insists it's not because of tariffs – Sky News
