Biden slams Trump as 'revealing twisted true colors' after Trump says he hopes economy crashes in 2024

• The White House took aim at Trump for saying he hoped the economy would crash this year rather than during his theoretical second term.
• The Biden administration used Trump's remarks to tout Bidenomics victories and to draw a contrast with the economy under Trump.
• The economy has shown promising signs of recovery over the past couple of months, though consumers in early polling say they have yet to feel the relief and have blamed Biden.
• The economy expanded for several years under Trump but experienced a significant crash while he was still in office.

The White House took aim at former President Donald Trump after the Republican presidential candidate front-runner said he hoped the economy would crash this year rather than during his theoretical second term.

"A commander in chief's duty is to always put the American people first; never to hope that hard-working families suffer economic pain for their own political benefit," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement Tuesday.

In an interview that aired Monday on the right-wing video platform Lindell TV, Trump said, "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."

Within the first year of Hoover's presidency in 1929, the U.S. stock market experienced a devastating crash that evolved into the Great Depression, the longest and most scarring economic decline in American history. The depression spanned all of Hoover's presidency, staining his legacy with the wounds of the recession. For example, homeless encampments that sprawled during the Great Depression came to be known as Hoovervilles.

Economists have forecast economic slowing in 2024, but consensus has not gone so far as to cry recession.