From Steve Rattner:
Donald Trump took to the stage in North Carolina Wednesday to outline his economic program. As usual, his 75-minute-long performance included a mix of a formal address and a semi-hysterical rant, which, also as usual, included a mix of fact and fiction. He claimed that during his presidency, we took in hundreds of billions of dollars from tariffs on Chinese imports (false: It was just $89 billion). He said mortgage rates are 10% to 11% (false: They are around 7%, depending on duration). He claimed we’ve never had inflation as high as in last three years (false: He should well remember the 1970s and early 1980s).
Perhaps his most audacious claim was that during his presidency, we had “the strongest economy in history.” Not only was the economy not the strongest in history; it wasn’t even as strong as it has been during Joe Biden’s presidency. Whether adjusted for Covid or not, economic growth was stronger under Biden than under Trump. Excluding the effects of Covid, the economy expanded at an average annual rate of 2.6% under Trump but at a 3.5% rate under Biden.
