When President Trump took office on his 100th day this week, there is nothing to celebrate about the U.S. economy.

Economic growth appears to be slowing. The stock market fell sharply. Consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new "golden age" promised on the day of the inauguration three months ago was almost unlike the new "golden age".

The figures to be released on Wednesday are expected to indicate that GDP growth in the first quarter of the year is much slower than the last few months of 2024.

The quarterly GDP report covers the final weeks of the Biden administration and the early months of Trump’s tenure, including the first rumble of the president’s new trade war.

As businesses and consumers compete for inventory before Trump took effect in early April, partly due to a surge in imports. Imports are a net negative for GDP.

Americans feel annoying

Forecasters believe that personal spending also slowed in the first quarter after strong growth late last year.

"Consumers continue to drive trains, but their enthusiasm is far more than so far," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody Analytics.

The consumer confidence index, prepared by the nonprofit conference committee, has fallen for five consecutive months, and now tariffs have eclipsed inflation. Many people surveyed said they fear Trump's import tax would raise prices and could put the economy in recession. The forward-looking elements of the confidence index are already well below the levels that usually mark an imminent recession.

"At the end of the day, the recession is about losing faith," Zandi said. "Consumers lose the confidence that they will be able to stick to their work, they reduce spending, and we will fall into a recession."

Although the job market has performed well so far, with the unemployment rate in March at just 4.2%, a survey by the conference committee found that expectations for the job market were the worst since 2009, when the economy blew hundreds of thousands of jobs per month.

The decline in the stock market also hurts confidence. As of Tuesday, the S&P 500 has fallen 7.3% since inauguration day, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq has fallen 11%. This is the worst performance of the market at the beginning of the 1970s.

Businesses are navigating uncertainty

Trump has imposed a 10% tax on almost all import taxes imported by the U.S. and a 145% tariff on many Chinese goods. The president also called for additional tariffs — just to suspend them — to make many businesses and consumers uncertain about the appearance of future import taxes.

Curt Carpenter is one of those in the mode to be seen, hoping that the tariffs can be “a lot of clumsy and a lot of marginal people.”

Carpenter operates furniture and lighting stores in Boston and imports most of the lighting equipment from China. He said his business tariffs were worse than the housing crisis in 2008.

"At the end of the day, it's just a tax on the end consumers," Carpenter said. "We're going to lose business for sure. But we're not going to lose it to our competitors. We're just losing opportunities to sell."

But there are supporters of the tariffs

However, some companies are cheering for tariffs.

Tom Barr, a third-generation mold maker in Michigan, has made plastic injection molding equipment for the automotive industry. He has been losing business for Chinese competitors, but since Trump's triple-digit tariffs came into effect, he has received four calls from potential customers exploring the possibility of bringing their orders home.

"Someone contacted us from Ford Motor Company," Barr said. "They are investigating it. They are not saying they will do anything, but want to know what their options are. So without these tariffs, these calls wouldn't even happen."

Barr believes that tariffs may be a narrower goal, namely, to promote domestic producers without undue restrictions on the broader economy.