In the face of mounting global and domestic issues, President Donald Trump prefers to stick to the meaningless posturing that earned him a large portion of his base in the first place. Monday afternoon, as the United States and world continued to face security and economic issues galore, Trump took to Twitter to yet again act as though he’s enacted some kind of utopia.
He wrote:
‘The U.S. is respected again!’
He tweeted as much in response to a tweet from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who wrote:
‘Our economy is booming, millions are working again, and our country is back on the right track thanks to President Donald Trump’s policies. Happy Labor Day!’
The Trump team often touts supposed economically utopian conditions, but they just as often miss the point.
In the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, the United States registered a GDP growth rate of some 4.1 percent, yes — but there’s more to the story. The growth rate is not expected to continue, and it’s presently been bolstered by a rush in trade meant to get ahead of the continuing rounds of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and by other governments in response to Trump’s belligerence and commitment to protecting pet American corporate interests.
To be precise, although overall in 2018 the Congressional Budget Office expects the U.S. to hit a 3.1 percent growth rate, in 2019, the CBO projects a 2.4 percent growth rate.
Other errors in Sanders’ and Trump’s reasoning are more long-running and familiar. They like to tout the job growth and low unemployment rates seen under the Trump administration without paying any regard to the economic turnaround the U.S. experienced under Barack Obama.
In their world, all of the economic growth began with President Trump and not a moment before — and they’re wrong.
Check out Twitter’s response below.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
