Falken Wrote:
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> Obama had set the scene perfectly for him. A
> flourishing economy is not created overnight.

Absolutely true, and the facts bear this out. The myth of Trump’s economic performance is based on a false narrative that Trump inherited a recession and magically turned it into a boom. This is almost the exact reverse of actual events. In reality, what Obama inherited from Bush was the worst recession since the Great Depression. What Trump inherited from Obama was an expansion that, in retrospect, turned out to be the longest in U.S. history — which Trump has now converted into a bust.

The United States was not in recession when Trump took office (as it had been when Obama was first inaugurated). In January 2017, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent and had been falling steadily for more than seven years. It continued falling at about the same pace over the subsequent three years. In fact, Obama had a much steeper drop in unemployment rate in his second term, a 3.3 drop, than the decline of 1.2 Trump did in his first three years.

Pre-coronavirus, job growth under Trump continued at a slower pace than it had under Obama. Employers added an average of 216,000 per month during Obama’s second term, compared to only 185,000 jobs per month under Trump through February 2020.

Pre-coronavirus, average quarterly economic growth under Trump, 2.5 percent, was almost exactly what it was under Obama in the second term, 2.4 percent.

Pre-coronavirus, the only real economic increase under Trump was the stock market. On Dec. 31, 2019, the DJIA was at 28,538. That was up 56 percent from 18,332, where it was the day Trump was elected in 2016. Obama’s figures were not bad on this measure either. From his second Election Day until 2016, the Dow climbed 38 percent.

Of course, thanks to Trump’s handling of the pandemic, everything has gone to shit now.