Trump Hopes US Economy Crashes Before Possible 2nd Term: ‘I Don’t Want to Be Hoover’

The Congressional Budget Office is expecting GDP growth to slow in 2024 and to pick up in 2025 during the next presidential term.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media as he arrives at the New York State Supreme Court during the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization, in New York City, on Dec. 7, 2023. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump said he aims to avoid a first year akin to President Herbert Hoover’s—during which the stock markets crashed, marking the onset of the 1929 Great Depression—should he win a second term in November.

“We have an economy that’s so fragile, and the only reason it’s running now is it’s running off the fumes of what we did … It’s just running off the fumes,” President Trump said in a Jan. 8 interview with Lou Dobbs. “And when there’s a crash, I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president I just don’t want to be [is] Herbert Hoover.”