After spending Monday praising the Biden economy as the country barrels towards a possible recession, MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle used Tuesday’s The 11th Hour to say to conservatives that miss the Trump economy, that things were not that good under the prior administration, even without the pandemic.
After playing a clip of Sen. Marsha Blackburn praising Trump’s economic record, Ruhle was not impressed with the argument, “Hold your horses. Under President Trump economic success was pretty much a given? For fact's sake, let's take a look back at the Trump economy. There is this Washington Post analysis from January 8th 2021, quote, ‘Trump will have the worst job record in modern U.S. history. It's not just the pandemic.’"
Trying to prove this point, Ruhle continued, “Trump is the only modern president to leave office with fewer jobs than when he took office. Three million fewer jobs to be exact. Of course, the pandemic was the root cause for so many jobs lost across the country, in the late part of his administration. But this chart right here shows that even before the pandemic, job growth under Trump was at a lower pace than most of other presidents.”
Of course, the closer unemployment gets to zero, the fewer jobs will be created, but Ruhle didn’t mention that. Instead, she declared, “And as the Washington Post puts it, quote, ‘President Trump took office at the crest of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. He leaves presiding over the worst labor market in modern U.S. history, as an already sputtering economic recovery has turned negative.’”
That would be the fault of the pandemic, but again Ruhle didn’t omitted unpleasant counterarguments. As for the good economic performance prior to the pandemic, Trump still doesn’t deserve credit, “Remember, Trump took office with a winning economy.”
As for the Biden economy:
Today we learned consumer confidence has declined for a third straight month. Not good news but also not a surprise. When everything in your life cost more, you don't feel good about the economy. And when the tool the government uses to slow rising prices, makes it more expensive to borrow, but we don't like that much either. And tomorrow, we’re gonna find out if the fed plans to raise rates again and they likely we'll. On Thursday, we get GDP numbers. Likely going to show a second quarter of decline. Also not great news.”
This apparent change of tune from Monday doesn’t mean things are all bad, “But it doesn't mean it's a full blown recession. Why? Because there’s other things. There is good news. We got low unemployment. Steady job growth. And a high rate of savings. The economy is not all good, the economy is not all bad. But we have in this giant country of ours is a complicated economy. And that’s the truth.”
It is going to be hard to spin changing the definition of a recession and two consecutive quarters of GDP loss as “complicated,” but Ruhle will no doubt attempt to do that when the numbers are officially released.
This segment was sponsored by Sleep Number.
Here is a transcript for the July 26 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
7/26/2022
11:58 PM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: The last thing before we go this evening, revisionist history. Our friends over at The Recount uncovered some interesting sound from Marsha Blackburn today. Watch this.
MARSHA BLACKBURN: Under President Trump, economic success was pretty much a given. The country was recovering from the pandemic. We had a plan to repair our supply chains. And the American people were starting to have hope that the dystopian nightmare that they’d been living through was finally over.
RUHLE: Hold your horses. Under President Trump economic success was pretty much a given? For fact sake, let's take a look back at the Trump economy. There is this Washington Post analysis from January 8th 2021, quote, “Trump will have the worst job record in modern U.S. history. It's not just the pandemic.”
Trump is the only modern president to leave office with fewer jobs than when he took office. Three million fewer jobs to be exact. Of course, the pandemic was the root cause for so many jobs lost across the country, in the late part of his administration. But this chart right here shows that even before the pandemic, job growth under Trump was at a lower pace than most of other presidents.
And as the Washington Post puts it, quote, “President Trump took office at the crest of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. He leaves presiding over the worst labor market in modern U.S. history, as an already sputtering economic recovery has turned negative.”
Remember, Trump took office with a winning economy. So let's fast forward to right now. And look at some key numbers to come this week. Today we learned consumer confidence has declined for a third straight month. Not good news but also not a surprise.
When everything in your life cost more, you don't feel good about the economy. And when the tool the government uses to slow rising prices, makes it more expensive to borrow, but we don't like that much either. And tomorrow, we’re gonna find out if the fed plans to raise rates again and they likely we'll. On Thursday, we get GDP numbers. Likely going to show a second quarter of decline. Also not great news.
But it doesn't mean it's a full blown recession. Why? Because there’s other things. There is good news. We got low unemployment. Steady job growth. And a high rate of savings. The economy is not all good, the economy is not all bad. But we have in this giant country of ours is a complicated economy. And that’s the truth.
