'Did you hear the latest con job?': Trump and Obama spar over who should get credit for the robust US economy
Reuters/Carlos Barria (Trump), Larry Downing (Obama)
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama clashed on Monday over who should get credit for the robust economic expansion that's underway.
Obama tweeted to commemorate the signing of an $800 billion stimulus package that he said paved the way "for more than a decade of economic growth."
Trump responded: "Did you hear the latest con job? President Obama is now trying to take credit for the Economic Boom taking place under the Trump Administration."
Trump has made the economy central to his reelection bid, setting the stage for more confrontations on the matter with Obama.
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama clashed on Monday over who should get credit for the robust US economy, now in its 11th year of growth.
Obama tweeted to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He said the $800 billion stimulus package passed after the Great Recession helped pave the way "for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history."
That set off Trump, who responded with back-to-back tweets deriding Obama for claiming credit for the recovery that began under the former president's watch.
"Did you hear the latest con job? President Obama is now trying to take credit for the Economic Boom taking place under the Trump Administration," Trump tweeted.
He said that Obama "had the WEAKEST recovery since the Great Depression" and that he himself had the "best jobs numbers ever." Trump ended his tweetstorm with "THE BEST IS YET TO COME. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!"
US economic growth has been steady, and unemployment is at a half-century low. As a result, Trump has cast himself as a chief executive uniquely responsible for leading the economy to new heights, calling it "the greatest" in US history.
But experts have noted that the economy grew faster in the late 1990s under President Bill Clinton and that jobs were added at a faster clip in the last three years of Obama's presidency than in Trump's first three.
The NBC News business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle tweeted that quarterly US GDP growth hadn't reached 4% under the Trump administration but reached it four times under Obama.
Trump has thrust the economy toward the center of his reelection bid, setting the stage for more confrontations on the issue with Obama.
It's not the first time the former president has sought to highlight his administration's economic record. In a speech at the University of Illinois before the 2018 midterm elections, Obama accused Republicans of giving themselves too much credit for the nation's economic health, Business Insider's Bob Bryan reported.
"So when you hear how the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started," Obama said. "I'm glad it's continued, but when you hear about this 'economic miracle' that's been going on when the job numbers come out — monthly job numbers — suddenly Republicans are saying it's a miracle. I have to kind of remind them those job numbers are the same as they were in 2015 and 2016."
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