A dozen Bloomberg opinion writers on Thursday offered their evaluations of President Trump’s performance over his first two years in office, with former Bloomberg editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler tackling the change in the budget deficit.
Trump, Winkler writes, “has the dubious distinction of being the first leader among the Group of Seven (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, U.K., U.S.) to see the deficit widen on his watch as a percentage of gross domestic product during a synchronized global expansion.”
Thanks in large part to Trump’s tax cuts, the steady improvements in government revenues relative to outlays since the end of the recession have now reversed themselves, with revenues falling 2.7 percent, or $83 billion, in 2018 relative to the year before. By comparison, tax revenues surged 7 percent in 2015, the last time GDP growth approached 3 percent.
If economic growth continues on its path toward less robust levels, Winkler says, “Trump will be the first president to preside over perennial deficits exceeding $1 trillion.”
Read the full review of Trump’s performance here.
