Philip Bump of the Washington Post has a fantastic article titled How Trump tries to obscure the strong economy he inherited.
Bump points to tweets sent out by Trump’s campaign and GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel contrasting how much better they claim the economy has been under Trump compared to Obama. Bump then highlights some charts on a variety of economic measures over the last couple decades.
But Bump does something to the charts that really just slays the arguments Team Trump is making on how much greater the economy’s been under Trump. Bump erased the years, leaving only the trend line, and he then asks the reader: When did Trump take office?
As you can see, you can’t tell. There is no sudden spike of job creation or sharp drop in unemployment indicating when the economy dramatically improved under Trump. Because the economy has not dramatically improved under Trump, it has merely continued along the same trajectory.
To further underscore the point, here’s a chart I found on wage growth, with the years taken out:
When did Trump take office?
And here’s a chart on GDP with the years taken out:
When did Trump take office?
So next time some right-wing idiots go off about how the economy was in the dumps when Obama left office and then made a dramatic turnaround under Trump, show them the charts above. Then ask them if they can show where exactly on these charts this supposedly dramatic turnaround under Trump began.
After that, sit back and watch them sputter and foam at the mouth with impotent rage.
