This is a complete disaster
The economy continues to be the top news of the day, especially where Donald Trump is concerned. He continues to tout the strength of the economy, even in the face of statistics that show it is headed south. Trump reminds me of the kid whose mom keeps telling him not to touch the stove because it’s hot. Sure enough, he has to touch it to find out the hard way. That is what’s going to happen to Trump sooner or later. Where the economy is concerned, Trump’s stove is likely to get hot sooner.
New data has come to light that directly challenges Trump’s rhetoric about the economy, according to The Hill. This data reveals that even as Trump claims to have “Perhaps the greatest ECONOMY and most successful first two years of any President in history,” he is once again stretching the truth. PNC Bank Chief Economist Gus Faucher disagrees: “I would actually say it’s been a weaker recovery than what we’ve seen previously.” Faucher’s opinion relies heavily on numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which were released just last week. These numbers show that Trump’s economy added 500,000 fewer jobs than claimed between January 2018 and March 2019.
Likely to irritate Trump even more, his average job growth since taking office is 193,000, below the 208,000 average during President Obama’s second term, and the revision makes Trump’s actual average number 177,000. Something else for him to hate Obama over, not that he needs it. He seems so incredibly envious of President Obama, and his insecurity shows in many of his bad policies that seek to simply wipe out President Obama’s accomplishments. One thing he’ll never be able to erase is President Obama’s character or create one for himself, but I digress.
Faucher said that they thought there was an acceleration in job growth in 2018 but that it now appears that they had the same below-average trend. Further, the revised GPD wipes out Trump’s claim of four consecutive quarters of 3% growth. Goldman Sachs predicts 1.8% growth for 2019, but we’ll never hear about that from Trump. He claims the good, even when he had nothing to do with it, and attempts to ignore the bad, but the experts are here to remind him by releasing accurate statistics.
Two things Donald Trump can take credit for are the ever-increasing national and trade deficits. Instead of lowering these deficits, as he promised during his campaign, he has added to them in alarming fashion. According to the Hill, the federal deficit is expected to rise by $1 trillion this year, and the trade deficit by 7% to 8% from the $502.3 billion existing prior to Trump taking office. According to Kiplinger, it is already up by 8%.
If anyone needs a reason other than the obvious that the Trump “presidency” is a disaster, they need look no further than these numbers. 2020 is still a long way away, opening the door for more damage from Trump, but if we can stick together to elect the right person to office, we can begin to chip away at the damage. Obviously, fixing Trump’s disasters is going to take time, but every little bit will help.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years