'All Trump's fault': Economics columnist shows how the president is entirely to blame for slowing economy

Economic growth in the United States slowed to 2.1 percent in the second quarter of 2019 -- and Market Watch economics columnist Tim Mullaney makes a compelling case that President Donald Trump's trade war shares almost all of the blame.

The report showed that both consumer spending and government spending helped keep growth afloat in the second quarter, but those factors' impact was muted by business investment falling by 5.5 percent, despite the fact that the entire point of the Republicans' 2017 corporate tax cut was to boost business investment in the United States. Additionally, the report showed that U.S. exports similarly declined by more than 5 percent.

Mullaney attributes both of these spending drops on Trump's trade war with China.

"To the extent things are weaker, it’s because of softness in China’s economy, which has a number of causes -- and the one the U.S. can do the most to make better, or worse, is trade policy," he writes. "So, yes, it’s Trump’s fault."

Mullaney then argues that the second quarter's slower growth wasn't a disaster, but he does think that it shows the GOP's tax cut has been a massive bust.

"The evidence is also clear enough now to bury the president’s tax cut, after barely pausing to praise it last year," he writes. "The bill, which directed most largesse to business owners and corporations, was supposed to accelerate the economy by accelerating investment. But aside from a huge jump in inventories in the third quarter of 2018, it never happened."

Read the whole column here.