CNBC’s Steve Liesman Gobsmacked by ‘Frozenness’ of Trump Economy as GDP Shrinks: ‘Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen Before’
CNBC’s senior economics reporter Steve Liesman was left stunned by the “frozenness” of the economy Wednesday amid a sharp retraction in the first quarter under President Donald Trump.
The Commerce Department reported that the gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, fell by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, marking its first contraction since 2022.
Weeks after Trump’s sweeping global tariffs plan triggered a collapse in consumer sentiment and market instability, a 32% drop in consumer confidence was measured in April — its lowest level since the 1990 recession. Trump’s shifting trade strategy, marked by steep duties on imports and brief tariff rollbacks, has rattled global partners and raised fears of a looming technical recession.
As the news broke on CNBC, Liesman reacted live on air with host Becky Quick.
“People have the wherewithal to spend,” Liesman said. “It’s whether or not they’re in the mood to spend that we’re watching here, and we don’t know how much sentiment really plays a role here. I think there’s a certain frozenness, if I may, to the economy right now.”
He continued: “There’s not a lot of hiring necessarily going on, and we’ll get that number Friday, but we’re not seeing the firing either.”
Quick replied: “It’s been interesting with earnings because everybody is suspending their guidance for the full year. They don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Liesman added.
“What to me is most amazing, though, is you hear most companies, I think, saying that they’ve been OK even recently, that things are still hanging in there. The companies that don’t are the ones that are getting punished in the stock market,” the host pointed out.
She continued: “If you say things have been weak in the first few weeks of this quarter, if you say things were getting worse at the end of the last quarter, those are the stocks that are being punished. I wouldn’t, I would say the majority of them are saying things are still okay right now.”
Liesman replied: “We want to be careful, too, because if the companies are not clear about their outlook, how good are the economic forecasts right now? We showed you that they have come down quite a bit. They were right in terms of their tracking forecast, but that has data in it. But we don’t know – like a second quarter is probably a pretty good idea that there’ll be some kind of bounce back from this number, but it’s the third and fourth quarter that are the ones that are questioned.”
“I think that’s why companies are withholding that guidance right now because they don’t have that visibility on their books for the next beyond say several months,” he added.
Watch above via CNBC.
