Trump Takes Credit for ‘Unbelievable’ Economic Numbers Then Slams ‘Previous Administrations’ for Problems He ‘Inherited’

‘Lots of Problems That We Inherited From Previous Administrations’

President Trump wants to have his cake and eat it too.

While addressing his cabinet members Monday morning, the President rattled off a string of economic “achievements” – largely related to Obama-era policies – including low unemployment, historic stock market highs, rising GDP growth, and “business enthusiasm,” by which Trump may have meant consumer confidence.

But while taking credit for these “accomplishments,” President Trump was only too happy to blame any problems facing his administration on his predecessor.

“We were discussing a little while ago, before the meeting, how well we’re doing,” Trump, as the cameras rolled, said in the Cabinet Room, which he earlier had referred to as the “Board Room,” a throw-back to his “Apprentice” reality TV show. 

“We have the highest stock market in history.  We have a GDP, on Friday — it got very little mention, although I guess in the business areas it did. But it got, I think, very little mention. 2.6 is a number that nobody thought they’d see for a long period of time.  Remember, I was saying we will hit three at some point in the not-too-distant future, and everybody smiled and they laughed and they thought we’d be at one.  And 2.6 is an unbelievable number, announced on Friday,” the President claimed. 

2.6% GDP growth is not “unbelievable,” by any measure, as CNN’s Keith Boykin made clear. In fact, 2.6% by comparison is relatively anemic:

“Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in 17 years,” Trump continued, not mentioning that unemployment under President Obama was sliced in half.

“Business enthusiasm is about as high as they’ve ever seen it.  In fact, it is as high — the highest point in 28 years according to a certain graph and a certain chart,” he said, not mentioning his source. “The manufacturers are — the enthusiasm level is incredible.  We have a lot of tremendous things going.”

Trump had tweeted a similar message earlier Monday morning.

And then, the negatives, which he pinned to the Obama administration and others.

“We have some interesting situations that we’ll handle: North Korea, Middle East, lots of problems that we inherited from previous administrations. But we’ll take care of them. We’ll take care of them very well,” Trump insisted.

“But, overall, I think we’re doing incredibly well,” the President told his cabinet secretaries.

So, the positive measurements, Trump takes credit for; the negatives, the problems, the challenges – all those are not his fault. 

Trump has made the situation with North Korea, for example, worse, but it’s a pre-existing issue. But likewise, he should not take credit for an economy that by some “soft” measurements looks like it’s doing well, without giving credit where credit is due.

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