Trump Just Bragged Of Creating 600k Jobs. Dow Jones’ Response Is Great
If there is one thing Donald Trump has shown he does well, it is exaggerating his accomplishments.
He was at it again this morning when he told a group of CEO’s during a policy discussion in the State Department library that since becoming President he has created hundreds of thousands more jobs than he deserved any credit for.
“At the top of our agenda is the creation of great high-paying jobs for American workers,” Trump said, “and we’ve made a lot of progress. You see what’s going on. You see the numbers. We’ve created over 600,000 jobs already in a very short period of time, and it’s going to really start catching on now because some of the things that we’ve done are big league, and they are catching on.”
Market Watch, a division of Dow Jones, is among those who parsed the figures and declared Trump’s numbers for job growth he somehow inspired are just wrong.
Dow Jones is part of News Corp, as is the Wall Street Journal, both controlled by Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Trump, reports Market Watch, “said his administration has created ‘over 600,000 jobs’ since he took office. But that’s a lot more than the government’s own scoresheet says.”
The American economy did create 533,000 jobs in the first three months but that includes January when two-thirds of the jobs created deserved to be credited to President Obama’s administration.
The jobs survey is actually done in the middle of each month, so “economists generally credit hiring in January during a White House transition to the outgoing President. “Subtracting the 216,000 jobs created in January from Trump’s tally leaves his official count at 317,000 – about half what he claims,” notes Market Watch.
“Most economists,” notes Politico, “would reject the assertion that Trump had much to do with shaping job growth during his first two months.”
Even if you just credit Trump for the half of 600,000 jobs created since he really took office, it remains a very dubious claim.
“The idea of attributing job creation to presidents, of course, is ultimately a fool’s errand even though it’a time-honored tradition for administrations to take credit in good times,” writes Market Watch. “Presidents don’t directly create jobs unless they hire more government workers.”
Trump has touted his program to cut regulations and red tape, as well as taxes, for the buoyant stock market since he became President, but most of what he has promised hasn’t actually been implemented yet, and what he has done is more about jawboning than actual accomplishments.
However, that won’t stop Trump from making unfounded claims – which he believes prove he is a success as President – when in reality his disorganized administration is floundering. That’s a fact that all the lies in the world can’t change.
