(PatriotNews.net) – Former President Barack Obama claimed on Thursday that the strong economy under former President Donald Trump was actually thanks to the work of his own administration. Obama made these remarks while campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh. He argued that Trump benefited from the foundation he had left behind.
“The reason some people think, ‘I remember that economy when [Trump] first came in being pretty good,’ is because it was my economy,” Obama told the crowd of Harris supporters. “We had 75 straight months of job growth that I handed over to him. It wasn’t something he did.” Obama also criticized former President George W. Bush, saying that his administration left behind a mess that took eight years to clean up.
Conservatives were quick to push back against Obama’s claims. Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire noted, “So by that logic, Biden’s economy is Trump’s, too. This argument works both ways.” Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief of The Federalist, pointed out that the economy during Obama’s presidency was known for being slow, which, she argued, is why Trump was able to win in 2016.
Others, like Mark Hemingway of RealClearInvestigations, backed up this view by stating, “In Obama’s last year in office, GDP growth was only 1.6%. Trump didn’t inherit a booming economy.” Trump’s supporters have often pointed to the fact that in his first year as president, GDP growth jumped to 4%, reaching as high as 4.8% in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump has focused heavily on economic issues, criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of inflation. In Michigan, a key swing state, Trump promised to cut energy bills by 50% within a year if he’s re-elected, stressing the importance of energy prices in everything from groceries to manufacturing.
Meanwhile, Harris has blamed corporate greed for rising prices, even proposing a federal ban on price-gouging, a plan that some have compared to strict Soviet-style economic controls. Both sides continue to debate who deserves credit for America’s past and present economic state.
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