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** Trump Oversells Recent U.S. Economic Growth
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Proud of federal data showing that economic growth in the second and third quarters of 2025 exceeded expectations, President Donald Trump has claimed that the growth rates were "numbers unheard of" and figures the U.S. “never had” before. But he's wrong.

As Staff Writer D'Angelo Gore writes this week, real gross domestic product, which has been adjusted for inflation, grew at an annualized rate of 3.8% in the second quarter and at a rate of 4.4% in the third quarter. Those were the largest quarterly increases since the third quarter of 2023, when the economy, under Joe Biden, expanded at an annualized rate of 4.7%, according to estimates from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Economic experts also told D'Angelo that federal data do not support Trump’s claim that he has turned around an economy that was "plagued by the nightmare of stagflation" during the Biden administration.

Stagflation is an economic term that "refers to a sustained period of high inflation combined with weak or stagnant real economic growth, typically alongside rising unemployment,” Kyle Handley, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, said in an email explaining that the Biden years don’t meet the definition.

Under Biden, the annual inflation rate peaked in June 2022, at 9.1%, but declined sharply in Biden’s last two years as president and was at 3% when Trump took office in January 2025. Meanwhile, "real GDP growth during the Biden presidency was positive and often above trend, and unemployment remained historically low,” Handley said. "That is not a period of economic stagnation."

As for Trump's tariffs, which the president credited for the country’s “economic success" in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, D'Angelo writes that they likely hindered economic growth last year, according to experts.

"The economics on this is fairly clear and there is broad consensus among economists: tariffs are essentially a tax on imports that raises costs for domestic consumers and businesses," Aeimit Lakdawala, an associate professor of economics at Wake Forest University, said in an email.

Lakdawala said tariffs have "been a modest drag on growth, not a driver of it."

For more, see the full story: "Trump Oversells Recent U.S. Economic Growth ([link removed]) ."
IN THE NEWS
On Feb. 12, the Trump administration repealed ([link removed]) the "endangerment finding," which allows the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases, the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change. In August, we wrote a Q&A on this issue, explaining the EPA's legal argument, the practical impact, and what legal and climate experts said about it. Read more: "Q&A on the Trump EPA’s Effort to Curtail Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions ([link removed]) ."
FEATURED FACT
Spending to build, expand and rehabilitate manufacturing sites in the U.S. has declined since President Donald Trump took office, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Quarterly figures show a decrease of 6.7%, while monthly data show a 7.3% decline through October, the most recent data available. Annual estimates show an increase in manufacturing construction spending in all four years under former President Joe Biden. Read more: "Manufacturing Construction Spending Declines Under Trump ([link removed]) ."
WORTHY OF NOTE
Science Editor Jessica McDonald was a panelist this week at a conference ([link removed]) at Yale University about rebuilding trust in public health. Moderated by Your Local Epidemiologist’s Katelyn Jetelina, Jessica spoke about strategies that can be used to enhance public understanding of science. Fellow panelists included a co-host of the podcast “Why Should I Trust You?,” a University of Minnesota professor of health communication and a Yale student who also works for CNN as a journalist.


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* WHO Didn’t Recommend Lockdowns, Contrary to Health Officials’ Suggestions ([link removed])
As the U.S. formally exited from the World Health Organization last month, Trump administration officials misleadingly claimed that the WHO “pushed” or “promoted” lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. The group did not explicitly recommend lockdowns, although it also did not advise countries not to implement them. It said it recognized that the measures might be needed in some cases.

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* El gasto en construcción de plantas manufactureras disminuye con Trump ([link removed])
El gasto en construcción, expansión y rehabilitación de plantas manufactureras en Estados Unidos ha disminuido desde que el presidente Donald Trump asumió el cargo, según datos de la Oficina del Censo de EE. UU. Sin embargo, Trump ha presumido repetidamente de que la “construcción de fábricas” ha aumentado un 41%.

* Trump exagera el reciente crecimiento económico de EE. UU. ([link removed])
En el segundo y tercer trimestre de 2025, la economía estadounidense creció a su ritmo más rápido en dos años. Esas tasas de crecimiento no fueron “números inauditos” ni números que Estados Unidos “nunca” ha “tenido”, como afirmó el presidente Donald Trump.

* Los estadounidenses no necesitan una cantidad “drásticamente” mayor de proteínas, a pesar de lo que afirman las autoridades ([link removed])
Al presentar nuevas directrices dietéticas, las autoridades sanitarias federales afirmaron que están corrigiendo directrices anteriores que crearon “una generación de niños con deficiencia de proteínas” y que los estadounidenses deberían consumir una cantidad “drásticamente” mayor de este nutriente. Si bien algunas personas pueden beneficiarse de un mayor consumo de proteínas, los estadounidenses no suelen presentar deficiencia de proteínas.


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