WASHINGTON (CNBC) — The U.S. economy just had its worst quarter since 2022 as President Donald Trump’s significant policy changes unnerved consumers and businesses.
Gross domestic product, which measures all the goods and services produced in the economy, registered at an annualized rate of -0.3% in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.
That’s a sharp slowdown from the fourth quarter’s 2.4% rate, and much worse than the 0.8% rate economists projected. GDP is adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation.
U.S. stocks opened lower after the GDP report was released, with the Dow down 400 points, or 1%. The S&P 500 fell 1.5% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 2.2%.
The Trump administration has been on a chaotic tariff spree over the past several months, escalating trade tensions with China and unsettling Americans. Most economists say Trump’s monumental bid to reshape global trade is likely to send inflation climbing in the United States and even trigger a recession.
The president, however, deflected blame from the weak figures reflected in the first economic report card of his second term. 
“Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’” he wrote Wednesday in a post on social media. “This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”
The economy’s decline was driven by a wider trade deficit — a result of Americans front-running purchases to beat Trump’s tariffs — and cutbacks in government spending, according to a release. Imports skyrocketed from -1.9% in the fourth quarter to 41.3% in the first three months of the year. Meanwhile, exports registered at a 1.8% rate.