President Trump on Friday touted the U.S. economy’s 350 percent growth in the second quarter as “an economic turnaround of historic proportions.” He also predicted the spurt will be sustained and even accelerate.
Yet few economists outside the administration agree with that bullish forecast. Here’s a look at Mr. Trump claims, and the facts:
U.S. GDP growth hit 350 percent in the second quarter
Trump touts “amazing” economic growth figures
“We’ve accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions,” Mr. Trump remarked Friday at the White House shortly after the Commerce Department released its GDP report.
In fact, Mr. Trump didn’t inherit a fixer-upper economy.
The U.S. economy just entered its 10th year of growth, a recovery that began under President Barack Obama, who inherited the Great Recession. The data show that the falling unemployment rate and gains in home values reflect the duration of the recovery, rather than any major changes made since 2017 by the Trump administration.
While Mr. Trump praised the 350 percent annual growth rate in the second quarter, the economy exceeded that level four times during the Obama presidency: in 2009, 2011 and twice in 2014.
In purely numerical terms, a larger shift took place in the second quarter of 2014, when the economy went from contracting by 1 percent to growing at a rate of 5.1 percent.