Trump's Damage to US Economy is Foundational and Will Last for Decades

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Economist Sounds Alarm On Damage Donald Trump Is Quietly Doing To The Economy
Lee Moran
Updated Mon, January 26, 2026 

Economist Justin Wolfers this weekend warned of the long-term damage he believes President Donald Trump is inflicting on the U.S. economy through what he described as “the most interventionist” and, in his view, the “least conservative” government of his lifetime.

The University of Michigan professor, during an interview with MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas, argued that the strongest economies depend on the rule of law, resilient institutions and free elections.

But Trump, Wolfers said, is actively undermining all of those foundations.

Watch the full interview on YouTube.

The consequences, Wolfers warned, will not appear in “next quarter’s GDP” but will instead emerge “in a decade’s time” through companies that are never founded, entrepreneurs who can’t afford business school, and immigrants with transformative ideas who choose to remain in their home countries.

“Whatever the next generation’s Google or OpenAI is, it may not end up being invented or it may not happen on our soil,” Wolfers said.

A longtime critic of Trump’s economic policies, Wolfers predicted the most severe effects will ultimately be felt by future generations.

“Our kids will feel it in a set of lost opportunities,” he said. “There’ll be businesses they never started, there’ll be job opportunities, there’ll be new technologies, there’ll be ways of creating a greener, safer, more prosperous future that simply aren’t possible but we’re not going to see it straight away.”