When President Trump announced Friday that the American economy had grown at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter — an achievement he called “amazing” — he included a long list of statements about how well the economy has performed on his watch.
He declared that the United States was “the economic envy of the entire world,” and indeed, the American economy is in a relatively strong position: Growth is accelerating, its size and diversity make it more resilient over all, and it is less reliant than the economies of other major countries on exports, which could help it weather a trade war more easily. Growth in Japan, China and Europe has been slowing.
But several trends for which Mr. Trump took credit were underway — and in some cases more pronounced — before he took office. Other claims lacked context or foundation.
Here are some of the president’s remarks during the White House session, fact-checked:
“We’ve accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions.”
This requires context.
It does look as if the growth rate has picked up meaningfully this year and may be on track for the best year of the decade-long recovery. But the economy is continuing the essentially upward trajectory established before Mr. Trump took office, with some quarters growing a little faster and some more slowly. In a given quarter, the economy exceeded 4 percent annual growth four times during the Obama administration, with the highest level — 5.3 percent — occurring in the third quarter of 2014. The jobless rate was 7.8 percent when President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, and was 4.8 percent when he turned over the reins to Mr. Trump. In Mr. Trump’s 18 months in office, the jobless rate has fallen further, and was 4 percent last month. Gross domestic product has risen every year for the past nine years.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/business/economy/trump-gdp-fact-check.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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