Donald Trump Will Leave The White House With A Historically Bad Economy, Report Says
A Sunday report from CNN claims Donald Trump is set to leave the United States with a historically bad economy when he departs the White House.
The piece examined both Trump’s pre-pandemic and post-crisis record. Although his pre-coronavirus economy saw a decreased unemployment rate and increased expansion of output, the publication also noted the change he drove was not all to his credit.
“The persistent growth in output and decline in the unemployment rate during his first three years extended trends in the recovery from the Great Recession that he inherited from President Barack Obama,” the report read.
The publication also claimed the boost to the economy was temporary. While his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act caused a growth acceleration, CNN claimed the budget deficit grew and the advancement reached a ceiling due to the economy reaching full employment.
After the pandemic, unemployment surged, and last week marked the 38th in a row where at least 700,00 Americans filed for benefits for the first time. Although Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi acknowledged that the pandemic can’t be laid solely at Trump’s feet, he argued the president’s response had exacerbated the damage the crisis has had on the economy.
“Alone among the 13 presidents since World War Two, Trump will exit the White House with fewer Americans employed than when he started. He will have overseen punier growth in economic output than any of the previous 12 presidents.”
Zaid also noted that Trump’s populist narrative doesn’t seem to have manifested through his policies. In the third quarter of 2020, the economist pointed out that the least wealthy 50 percent of U.S. citizens accounted for just 1.9 percent of the country’s wealth. Conversely, the top 1 percent own approximately 30.5 percent of the nation’s affluence.
Still, some continue to argue for Trump’s pre-pandemic achievements. In an op-ed for Bloomberg, columnist Karl W. Smith opined that the president’s economy was better than his predecessor’s. He highlighted the declining level of unemployed Americans from 2009 to 2016 and attributed it to the head of state’s spending increases, pressure on the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates, and his tax cuts program — all of which he noted ignored popular consensus.
“Trump proved that an aggressive growth strategy can improve the fortunes of the average American family. That strategy should continue.”
Elsewhere, Trump’s economic approach — the tax cuts, in particular — has drawn some scrutiny. As The Inquisitr reported, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz warned that the legislation would increase taxes on the middle class in roughly six years. The hidden increase allegedly begins in 2021 and will increase every two years until they affect almost everyone but the wealthy by 2027.
