Dear Editor,

As the economy of our great nation, which had been undeniably quite good until the onset of COVID-19 several months ago, appears to be, by his and his Republican cohorts, the greatest “accomplishment” of his presidency as indicated on numerous occasions by President Donald J. Trump of his “unprecedented achievement” stating:

“We (the Trump administration) have accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions,” and “It (the economy) was going bad. If you look at the number from the end of the Obama administration, it (the economy) was crashing,” when in reality such rhetoric is strongly contradicted by the actual facts.

For the record, in actuality President Trump inherited a very strong, and growing economy from his predecessor Barack Obama, as under President Obama, approximately $250,000 jobs per month were added in the U.S.

In 2014, 227,000 per month in 2015, and 193,000 per month in 2016.

Whereas, under President Trump, 179,000 jobs were created in 2017, 223,000 jobs added in 2018, and 175,000 in 2019. Also, President Obama left the White House with 76 consecutive months (six years and four months), which continued during the Trump presidency until the advent of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, President Trump has touted: “We (the U.S.) never had an economy like this in history” when in fact the unemployment rate had been at 3.5 percent during his presidency, it was as low as 2.5 percent in 1953 under President Eisenhower, and our country has experienced a consistently less than 3.0 percent growth rate under President Trump, compared to a 4.5-4.7 percent annual growth in 1997-1999 under President Bill Clinton, 4.4-6.6 percent from 1962-1966 under President Kennedy and Johnson, and 8.0 and 8.8 percent respectively in 1950-1951 under President Truman.

President Trump also recently stated: “America now has the hottest economy anywhere on earth.” However, in fact our annual growth rate is currency exceeded by China, India, Latvia, Poland, and Greece.

The stock market was quite strong under President Obama, which President Trump begrudgingly did acknowledge, along with the disclaimer that such was primarily as a result of the “low interest rates” which were implemented in response to the great recession, which occurred under President George W. Bush, stating: “We have a face economy. The only thing strong is the artificial stock market.” now, President Trump often brags about the stock market, giving himself full credit for its success.

For the record, facts do, and must, matter, and should always take precedence over baseless self-aggrandizement.

Richard Hord

Martins Ferry