Donald Trump

Jan 20, 2017 - Jan 19, 2021

Last updated: March 28th, 2024

Donald Trump was elected in November 2016 and served one term as United States president. He is a former real estate developer. His administration has focused on deregulation, tax cuts, and protectionist trade policy.

In 2017 Trump and congressional Republicans reformed the tax code to lower corporate tax rates. He levied tariffs on imports from China and other countries by executive order throughout 2018. He also passed a number of policies focused on deregulation.

Summary of Donald Trump’s performance

Below is a table summarizing Donald Trump's cumulative and annualized performance across all the metrics we track. These are for the entirety of Donald Trump's term.

IndicatorCumulative Gain/Loss
NASDAQ137.56%
DOW56.00%
S&P67.26%
Job Growth-2.03%
GDP Growth6.17%

Key Policies
  • Tax Cuts And Jobs Act (Dec 2017)

  • Trump Tariffs (by executive order in Jan, Mar, and Jun 2018)
  • Deregulation (via multiple executive orders, bills, and congressional reviews)

Key Events
  • Chinese retaliatory tariffs take effect (July 2018)

  • Trump and Kim Shake Hands At Korean DMZ (June 2019)
  • COVID-19 infects more than 29 million Americans and leads to 500k+ deaths (Jan 2020 – current)

Donald Trump's stock market performance

Under Donald Trump’s presidency, the S&P 500 gained 67.26%, the NASDAQ gained 137.56% and the Dow Jones gained 56.00%. Annualized, the S&P 500 gained 13.71%, the NASDAQ gained 24.13% and the Dow Jones gained 11.75%

Here is Donald Trump’s cumulative stock market performance broken out by term.

IndicatorCumulative End of Term 1Cumulative End of Term 2
NASDAQ133.98%137.56%
DOW55.41%56.00%
S&P65.91%67.26%

Stock Performance Chart

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Trump GDP growth performance
During Donald Trump’s presidency, the GDP gained 6.17%. That translates annually as GDP gained 1.53%.

Here is Trump’s cumulative GDP growth performance broken out by term.

IndicatorCumulative End of Term 1Cumulative End of Term 2
GDP Growth6.17%N/A

GDP Performance Chart

Trump jobs growth performance
During Donald Trump’s presidency, payrolls shrunk 2.03% cumulatively. That translated to an annualized jobs loss of 0.52%.

Here is Trump’s cumulative job growth performance broken out by term.

IndicatorCumulative End of Term 1Cumulative End of Term 2
Job Growth-2.03%N/A

Job Growth Performance Chart
How we calculate President Trump's data for Facts First?

We capture the data as soon as it’s available to us – stock market data after daily market close, jobs data once a month and GDP data once a quarter. After verifying the raw data, we then calculate updated cumulative and annualized performance data for the current president (the data for previous presidents have been calculated and verified in advance).

Some metrics are measured daily (like stock market performance), monthly (like jobs growth) and quarterly (like GDP growth). We start measurement of performance for a president from the first full time period after their inauguration. For stock market performance, it is the first stock market day in office. For jobs growth, it’s either first full calendar month in office (so if you are inaugurated in the middle of January, the first full month is February). This ensures a consistent starting point across all presidencies.

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