Current Events > Trump's GDP worst since Hoover

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https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-08-02/trump-s-gdp-record-was-the-worst-since-hoover

Theres a reason U.S. presidents mostly avoid crowing about stocks or GDP or jobs numbers. Presidents have little control over broader market or economic trends, which can always be upended by nightmares such as terrorist attacks, pandemics and the United States Congress.

Former President Donald Trump broke with tradition by taking credit when stocks and growth numbers were favorable. He even went so far as to set specific targets, a rookie mistake. So to some extent he was almost asking for people to read too much into a chart like this one, from Justin Fox (see link above)

JFK and Trump are highlighted because they have the best and worst records, respectively. They dont show up in this chart, but FDR and Harry Truman also had better GDP results than Trump. That means Trumps record was the worst since Herbert Hoover, never a name you want to see in your BuzzFeed Which Former President Are You? quiz results.

There are many, many to be sures and to be fairs here. There was that whole pandemic thing, most important. Did Trump jump on the relief necessary to keep the economy from melting down to Earths core? Yes. But did he unnecessarily prolong and worsen the pandemic, deepening the economic impact? Also yes. You can massage the numbers in different reasonable ways and come up with results that are slightly more flattering to Trumps record.

But there is also the weird, unavoidable fact that economic growth generally has been better under Democrats than under Republicans. Even Jimmy Carter had the exact same GDP record as Ronald Reagan, believe it or not.

Does this speak to:

1. the inadequacy of GDP as a measure of presidential performance,
2. the teensy sample size, or
3. durable policy differences between the parties?

Also yes? Well have more data points by the 2024 election. If the streak continues, you can bet the current president will crow about it then. Read the whole thing.

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Trump supporters will just go GDP was bad because of the Democrat states shutting down to make Trump look bad

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Trump's ___ worst

Yes

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