Trump spouts false economic claims ahead of crypto summit

The White House held its first-ever “crypto summit” on Friday, gathering top execs from digital asset firms to chat about how the Trump administration plans to undo the Biden administration’s regulatory crackdown on crypto.

But the attendees reportedly left feeling deflated. Here’s where prices stand over the past 24 hours:

The event came three days after Trump’s first address to Congress since returning to office, in which he spouted several statements, including one about the economy that doesn’t quite align with the facts.

“As you know, we inherited an economic disaster and an inflation crisis from the previous administration,” Trump stated.

Here are the facts

Gross Domestic Product: Under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, real GDP growth averaged around 3.4% over the first three years, including a 2.5% growth in 2023. Compare that to Trump’s first term: Not counting the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-, the economy experienced an average annual real GDP growth of approximately 2.5%. By 2020, the pandemic led to a significant contraction and resulted in an overall average annual growth rate of about 1.6% for Trump’s term.

Inflation: Trump has claimed that the U.S. has faced “the worst inflation we’ve ever had.” However, that’s inaccurate – inflation last exceeded 9% in 1981, and has been much higher at various points throughout U.S. history. Indeed, prices surged considerably during the initial two years of Biden’s presidency, reaching a high of 9.1% in June 2022. By December 2024, the annual inflation rate was 2.9%.

S&P 500 Performance: Since Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021, the S&P 500 has risen by approximately 50%, despite a 19% drop in 2022 due to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes aimed at combating inflation.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Milestones: The DJIA surpassed several significant milestones during Biden’s tenure, including:

• Crossing 30,000 points on Nov. 24, 2020 — some 20 days after Biden was elected.
• Reaching 35,000 points on July 23, 2021.
• Surpassing 40,000 points on May 17, 2024.

Under Trump presently, consumer confidence is down; stocks just suffered their worst week in six months (h/t Forbes); and inflation worsened.

As for crypto, it’s still a mystery how Trump plans to pay for the digital asset stockpile that’s currently in the works. Will he raise taxes? We’re told there would be “no incremental costs on American taxpayers.”

It’s no wonder why both Republicans and Democrats are worried. See below.

It’s worth noting that the crypto summit on March 7 comes less than two months after Trump and some of his family members launched their own memecoins.

The big guns of crypto (i.e., Michael Saylor, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev) attended. It was a clear shift in attitude compared to the Biden era, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) drew the ire of those in the industry who felt that the Gary Gensler-led crackdowns were unfair.

After all, not everyone in the industry was a scammer (although 2024 had plenty of rug pulls).

Today, these honchos have Trump whose federal government — according to Axios’ Felix Salmon and Zachary Basu — has become “the primary driver of the chaos.” What could go wrong?