GDP hits 5.5%! Productivity Growth Tripled, Wages are Growing, Layoffs are the Lowest

Back in December 2025, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said “We’ve had 4% GDP growth in a couple of quarters,” and many economists wondered if GDP would hit 5% in 2026.

Well, this is really exciting! The AtlantaFed announced GDP hits 5.5%, Economist Peter St. Onge posted to X – a “Reagan-level boom,” while mainstream media, which is usually wrong on the economy, keeps pushing the “Trumpression.”

“Meaning the American economy is now growing faster than China. – Productivity growth tripled – Wages are growing 3.8% – Layoffs are the lowest since 2022 – Inflation is just 1.7% per Truflation This is the crash legacy media and economists swore was coming.”

GDP hits 5.5%.

Meaning the American economy is now growing faster than China.

– Productivity growth tripled
– Wages are growing 3.8%
– Layoffs are the lowest since 2022
– Inflation is just 1.7% per Truflation

This is the crash legacy media and economists swore was coming. pic.twitter.com/VSs011nyAy

— Peter St Onge, Ph.D. (@profstonge) January 16, 2026

Unemployment is down to 4.4%, inflation is below 2%, “as the economy grows even faster than Congress can spend it,” St. Onge said.

Layoffs are at the lowest since 2022 (Covid era), services are accelerating, and productivity growth, “the most important number for economists because it’s literally how you get rich,” St. Onge says, is currently running higher than 90% than the time since Reagan took office.”

He continues: Productivity measures how much you produce versus how much you put in – how much capital, how many workers it takes to make stuff – the gold standard since GDP – productivity is actual wealth.

“Productivity captures skills, know-how, and measures how much regulation is hurting growth, which is probably why governments like GDP better… aside from welfare and DMV salaries…” and productivity predicts future living standards. Will our kids be richer than we are?

He notes that this is important as the Biden GDP was 3% but productivity was a dismal half of that, as GDP was crawling with deficit spending, which meant all job growth over those four years was government spending.”

Trump has tripled Biden’s productivity, and at Trump’s productivity rate, it takes only 14 years to triple wages, if this keeps up, he said.

Affordability includes housing, mortgages, healthcare and food, but there is only so much Trump can do, St. Onge says, when Congress controls inflationary deficit spending.

“When Congress finally grows a pair, Americans will finally start feeling pretty good about the economy – maybe even good enough that Republicans keep their jobs in November’s mid-term elections.”

While GDP is 5.5% and wages are rising, it’s not all good news. Deep blue states like California are doubling down on Biden-era policies to keep us from feeling the Red wave. But the rest of the country, and even some in California are feeling the economic improvements. But the fraud…

🚨 DAVID SACKS: “California collects roughly double per capita what Texas and Florida do … And services got worse, test scores got worse, crime prevention got worse, they let convicts out of jails. Everything's gotten worse.” pic.twitter.com/izILlqoj5j

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 17, 2026

There is a lot more coming on California’s fraud… stay tuned. But back to the good news…

Elon Musk also predicted double digit growth for 2026, back in December 2025:

Double-digit growth is coming within 12 to 18 months.

If applied intelligence is proxy for economic growth, which it should be, triple-digit is possible in ~5 years.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 24, 2025

With the exception of Newsom’s California, it’s good to have adults back in charge.

Because all we hear from  mainstream media and the left, who have been rooting for America to fail, and their “experts” who got every major call wrong, is that The economy weakened support for President Trump in 2025.

If GDP is 5.5%, wages are rising, productivity is up, layoffs are down, and we see that inflation is 1.7%… and then the NGO fraud is eradicated, just imagine the economy then.