
It may be daylight savings time but it surely isn’t April Fools! So, the thought that Donald Trump finally thanked Barack Obama for anything is wishful thinking. Trump has convinced himself and his supporters that any and everything of a positive nature which has occurred since he assumed office on January 20, 2017 is the result of his personal brilliance and superb business acumen. As painful as it may seem for him to be humbler and demonstrate basic respect or acknowledgment of what he inherited, unfortunately in doing so it might go against the basic premise of his bombastic personality of giving others credit. Particularly if he considered that person a political opponent!
Economic factors looking good!
On Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their monthly jobs report. The data reflects activity for February 2018. The numbers were better than expected as over 313,000 jobs were created. No doubt those numbers are impressive and highlight the positive direction the overall U.S. economy is headed. The core issue for Trump and to the chagrin of his supporters is that when you evaluate historic data you can’t pick what you like or dismiss what you don’t like. Specifically, no doubt the economy has produced some impressive numbers since the Trump administration took over the reins. What gets lost in his enthusiasm is acknowledging or admitting what he inherited? As previously stated, some feel in doing so their anti-Obama argument get muddled because they have accepted the notion he is a Muslim, didn’t achieve anything or a person of absolute failure who did nothing to help the American people during his eight years as President.
“The recent tax cuts are a good sign but they don’t get much credit for this report because the synchronized global recovery has been strong since the middle of 2016” said Jonathan Golub, chief United States equity strategist at Credit Suisse.
The jobs report was a welcome change as it reversed the tough week the Trump administration was dealing with.
Nine years later some have forgotten or marginalized the condition of our economy when Obama took the oath of office? It was in a tailspin most had never experienced. Jobs were being lost to the tune of nearly 800,000 each month. Yet with some fundamental economic discipline and solid leadership the economy regained it stability and charted month over month improvement. Remarkably, many criticized Obama for not achieving a higher level of success! While those early years in the Obama administration required exceptional focus one thing is certain; positive numbers, even limited are much better than any negative numbers. The result is as Obama was departing and Trump was coming into office there is little argument things were headed in the right direction. Therefore, in fairness Trump has earned credit for keeping the economy on track and continue to move in the right direction. Perhaps the day will come when he communicates gratitude that what he inherited was much better than what Obama inherited.