Everyone knows that Donald Trump had a great economy. How do we know that? Because he told us that on Twitter, and later on Truth Social. One recent survey found that voters prefer Trump over Biden on the economy by 59 percent to 37 percent. Unfortunately, the Trump economy was far from great. Here is a list of GDP growth over the past half century:
Jimmy Carter 3.25%
Ronald Reagan 3.48%
George H. W. Bush 2.25%
Bill Clinton 3.88%
George W. Bush 2.2%
Barack Obama 1.62%
Donald Trump 0.95%
As you can clearly see Donald Trump only finishes in a meager 7th place well behind even President Jimmy Carter. This was even before Covid. Even if we give Trump a mulligan for Covid we still find that the economy under Trump grew at a meager 2.8% a rate still 18% slower than under President Biden.
Another measure of economic growth is private sector business investment. Since January 2021 the rate of investment has increased by 5.4% or twice the rate of Trump’s business investment of 2.7%. Even before Covid Biden’s numbers out perform Trump’s numbers. Apparently the very same consumers who give Trump a large lead in consumer sentiment polls have found the Biden economy more to their liking out spending Trump by 4.5% to 2%.
When it comes to job creation, President Biden has created over 14.3 million jobs over 3 years while Trump’s economy lost 2.7 million jobs. The worst record since Herbert Hoover. Under Biden Black unemployment is at its lowest point since 1970. “Under Biden, the monthly jobless rate in 2022 and 2023 averaged 3.6 percent versus nearly 4.0 percent under Trump from January 2017 to February 2020. Trump boasts about low Black unemployment, and Biden beats him here, too: Under Trump from January 2017 to February 2020, Black unemployment averaged 6.5 percent compared to 5.8 percent under Biden from January 2022 to December 2023. Ditto for Hispanics: Their unemployment rate averaged 4.3 percent in 2022 and 2023 versus 4.5 percent from January 2017 to February 2020.”–Washington Monthly.
New business creation under President Biden has outpaced Trump’s numbers 444,000 per month as opposed to 365,000 per month for Trump. In this case the pandemic actually helped inflate the numbers for Trump.
While it seems that most people have given Trump a mulligan for Covid, they hold Biden responsible for high inflation mostly caused by supply chain interruptions caused by the pandemic. As a result Trump comes in with an inflation rate of 2.1% as opposed to Biden’s 5.4% even though inflation has dropped to 2.1% in 2023. Republicans like to blame Biden’s $750 billion Covid aid package as the main cause of inflation, while overlooking Trump’s $2 trillion aid package as for some reason not being inflationary. Of course they always ignore the most inflationary agent of all that being Trump’s tariffs.
Another inflationary driving force was the cost of a barrel of oil, and over this the president has little control. Due to economic losses the Saudi government decided to restrict the production of oil which contributed to an increase in the price of oil from a low of $38.22 per barrel in 2020 to $59.78 in the first half of 2021, $70.95 in the second half of the year, and finally to $98.75 in early 2022. Nothing is more inflationary than the price of oil since almost everyone drives, and they are made aware of inflation every time they pass a gas station. Finally in 2023 the price of oil dropped to $70.36 per barrel.
I am quite sure you will hear the chant drill baby drill by the do nothing Republicans during the 2024 campaign, but it most be noted, shhh, that under President Biden America has become the number 1 oil producer in the world. Never before has oil production been as high as it has been under President Joe Biden.
Under President Joe Biden the national debt has grown by $1.84 trillion during his first 2 years in office. Under Donald Trump the national debt grew a whopping $8.2 trillion in 4 years. Democrats usually pay for their spending while Republicans add their expenditures to our credit card. Then when a Democrat gets into office all they do is whine about the national debt, and how it is strangling our economy as if it is the fault of the Democrats.
While influenced by right wing media the public likes to blame Biden for inflation, the fact is that he tamed inflation by gradually raising interest rates to slow economic investment. The plan has worked like a charm, and inflation is now down under 3%, and going down. Even Lawrence Kudlow, and Steve Forbes, hardly progressives, have given Biden high marks for his economy. “President Biden’s record not only eclipses Donald Trump’s, but when policy made a difference—on growth, employment, investment, and inflation—Biden stepped up and improved our economic conditions. Those are the facts.”–Washington Monthly.