Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that President Trump was wrong when he tweeted recently that the U.S. economic growth rate is higher than the unemployment rate "for the first time in over 100 years!" This has actually happened many times during the past century, even as recently as 2006. Statements like these from Trump are full of hyperbole at best, and easily disprovable factoids at worst. It's almost like the American president cares little about the accuracy of his words, on Twitter or elsewhere. Indeed, no one should view Trump's tweets as a reliable source of economic data.
But it's not just the country's top Republican who has trouble giving the straight story. President Obama recently suggested that Trump's "economic miracle" is happening courtesy of Obamanomics. Conservatives countered by blaming Obama's policies for the weak recovery and crediting Trump's election for its acceleration. As longtime conservative policy analyst Peter Ferrara wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, "The recovery took off on Election Day 2016, as the stock market communicated. Mr. Trump's tax cuts and sweeping deregulation — especially regarding energy — fundamentally changed course from Mr. Obama."
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