How’s the Economy, Mr. President?
Shortly after news broke that President Trump had tested positive for COVID-19, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows came out to speak with members of the press and remarked that the president had been inquiring about the economy.
President Trump’s effort to latch onto continued improvements under the Obama-Biden administration and claim credit for the “greatest economy in the history of our country” has never been supported by the facts. But, to answer President Trump’s question: How’s the economy, Mr. President? As this listicle shows, not great.
Jobs
The weaker than expected September jobs report confirms that Trump’s continued mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic has cost millions of jobs since March. Even with previously laid-off employees regaining their jobs or finding new employment, the U.S. is still 10 million jobs in the hole compared to pre-pandemic employment levels.
GDP
Leaving aside the fact that President Trump never lived up to his promise of GDP growth of up to 6%, his chronic mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively erased any gains he could previously lay claim to. In fact, Trump is in last place amongst 11 previous presidents in GDP growth — the only to end his first term in the red.
American Manufacturing
American manufacturing has long been a point of pride for the president, even though his own company and campaign make most their merchandise in China. As recently as the first 2020 Presidential Debate, President Trump falsely claimed to have “brought back” hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs. But the manufacturing economy remains stuck deep in the hole that President Trump dug due to his haphazard trade war with China. Today, there are around 640,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than there were in February of this year.
Farm Debt
It is no secret that farmers voted for Trump in droves in 2016, but the president has been anything but a friend to America’s agricultural economy. After demolishing the farm economy with his reckless trade wars, President Trump has failed to create long-term solutions and has instead necessitated farms to take on hundreds of billions in farm debt while forcing the agriculture industry to rely on government aid.
