In consecutive tweets cribbing from his usual pundits at Fox News, Trump’s policies go all unhinged. He’s not even reviewing the material from which he or his minions crib. Fortunately there’s the lack of creepy compliments of women, which means he had little to do with the final drafts.
Looks to be an actual day on the course, after the rain that forced Trump to allow bikers into his country club. We’ll soon see about whether he’ll make a DC return to a cloud of tear gas from demonstrations.
ECONOMY AND JOBS
TRUMP: “Economic growth, last quarter, hit the 4.1. We anticipate this next quarter to be — this is just an estimate, but already they’re saying it could be in the fives.” — remarks Tuesday before a group of business executives.
TRUMP: “As you know, we’re doing record and close-to-record GDP.” — remarks Tuesday.
THE FACTS: No. These are the latest in a string of exaggerated claims that Trump has made about the U.S. economy.
While economists are generally optimistic about growth, very few anticipate the economy will expand at a 5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter the president referred to. Macroeconomic Advisers, a consulting firm in St. Louis, forecasts 3.2 percent growth in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase economists have penciled in 3.5 percent. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta pegs it at 4.3 percent.
Whatever the final number turns out to be, none of these figures represents record or close-to-record growth for gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation’s output. The 4.1 percent growth in the second quarter was simply the most since 2014.