The second term of President Trump is marked by tariffs, chickening out on tariffs, then back to tariffs, bullying the Federal Reserve, gutting the BLS, and laying off large numbers of government employees. He frequently mentions an imaginary U.S. economy that’s on the rise under his stewardship. Trump talks about energy and grocery prices that are falling. He talks about lower mortgage rates and claims he has defeated the inflation monster. He argues that things have never been better for the Americans, especially after Biden’s administration.
However, the only people who seem to enjoy the economy are Trump and his billionaire friends. Trump’s net worth has surged dramatically since he returned to office in 2025. His wealth increased by approximately $3 to 4 billion in the past year alone. As of September 2025, estimates from Forbes and other major financial outlets put Trump’s net worth at anywhere between $7.3 billion and $8 billion, up from an estimated $4.3 billion in 2024, when he was running for president.
The single largest driver of Trump’s wealth growth has been his ventures into the crypto space. One of Trump’s cryptocurrencies is conservatively estimated to have pulled in at least $320 million since January. His DeFi business received a $2 billion investment from a foreign government wealth fund. Another memecoin has sold at least $550 million in tokens.
Meanwhile, the wealth of American billionaires reached a record $7.6 trillion by Labor Day 2025. This is an increase of 160% since Trump first took office. And thanks to current Federal laws, most of which are untaxed. This surge has been driven by tax policies, deregulation, and political fundraising structures that favor the ultra-wealthy. So, let’s see how the economy is actually doing.
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What’s Really Going On in the Trump Economy?
According to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal, a severe labor market slowdown is ahead. They forecast the US economy will create fewer than 50,000 jobs a month over the next year, down from earlier expectations. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that there are “significant downside risks” in the economy.
Moody’s Analytics published an analysis showing that 22 states are already in or close to a recession. The report stated that the state’s problems stem from a mix of slowed-down immigration, increasing tariffs, and federal job cuts. According to economist Michael Szanto, the downturn can be blamed on President Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Szanto said in an interview with NewsNation, “We have the highest tariff rate regime in over half a century that is going to prove a very tough challenge for the American consumer and for the economy overall.”
On the job market side, economists are expecting an additional 205,000 jobs through the first nine months of the 2025 financial year. The figure is down 58 percent from the same point in 2024 and the lowest tally since 2009. Hiring is stalled in many sections of the economy. Employers are nervous because of uncertainty in federal policies. Consequently, they’re less likely to increase hiring.
Some employers, instead of investing in job creation, are betting on artificial intelligence. Young workers with the least experience and freshers entering the workforce are the most affected. However, the industry’s sudden fixation on using AI for everything is making work harder for everyone. It turns out, AI is bad at most jobs, according to a study by Harvard Business Review.
We are also witnessing people “hugging” their jobs. “Hugging the job” is basically when workers, instead of frequently changing positions for higher pay or better opportunities, cling to their current jobs out of fear and uncertainty in the labor market. Add the labor market woes to the affordability crisis and the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill, and Americans are in for a rough time ahead.
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One Big Beautiful Disaster for the Working Class
Pair the failing economy with the Republicans’ slashes to the safety net, and you have the perfect disaster for the everyday American. The One Big Beautiful bill cuts benefits for millions of Americans, including 4.5 million children who depend on Child Tax Credits. The bottom 10% of Americans will see a reduction of up to 4% in their household resources. People earning under $17,000 annually can lose more than $1,000 of their income due to cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and student loan aid.
The Medicaid budget is seeing a reduction of more than $600 billion, affecting millions of the most vulnerable Americans. The CBO estimates that the budget bill will have adverse effects on over 7.6 million people. Food stamps witnessed the largest cut in its history, more than $300 billion over the next decade. Estimates that these cuts will cause more than 3.2 million Americans to lose access to food assistance, including 800,000 people with children aged 7 and older.
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What About the Billionaire Class?
The economy is working brilliantly for them. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill extended the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to lower the corporate tax rate further and provide significant benefits on capital gains and inheritance taxes. These tax breaks disproportionately benefited the wealthy, with billionaires seeing dramatic increases in stock, real estate, and other asset values.
Deregulation, especially in banking, energy, and environmental sectors, further increased profits for major corporations and their billionaire owners by reducing operational costs and legal barriers. Trump’s polices have been a boon to the fossil fuel industry. The federal government is phasing out federal incentives for low-carbon energy sources. It not only targets solar and wind energy production, but also any energy source that is good for the planet and bad for the fossil fuel industry. According to the research firm Greenline Insights, the proposed changes will cost the US more than 977,000 jobs and nearly $177 billion in lost GDP.
The One Big Beautiful Bill also repeals the IRA policy that allows renewable projects to transfer tax credits from one developer to another. In addition, it disqualifies projects that rely on exports from “prohibited foreign entities.” This makes most clean energy projects unviable, as much of the supply chain is still concentrated in China. Analysts estimate that these restrictions could cost the US economy $237 billion.
The number of billionaires in the US rose by almost 40% since the end of 2017, and the wealth of the top 15 has tripled. The largest chunk of this growth was in industries favoured by Trump, like tech, finance, and energy. Elon Musk, for example, has seen his wealth grow twentyfold, aided by both direct regulatory changes and proximity to executive decision-making.
Most of the increase in billionaire wealth has been concentrated in untaxed gains on stock portfolios and growing valuation of private companies, as the majority of these profits remain shielded under the law.
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