During the 2016 presidential campaign, President Trump famously promised the economy would grow 4% under his leadership.
Today, he delivered.
In the second quarter of 2018, the economy grew 4.1%–the third-highest quarter on record in a decade.
Ironically, Trump’s 2016 promise of 4% growth was met with widespread derision by the political pundits.
According to a CNN article from October 2016, 11 economists surveyed by CNN said there was “no chance” Trump could deliver such explosive economic growth. At the time, in 2016 under Barack Obama, the economy was growing just 1.6%.
CNN wrote,
“No, pigs do not fly,” says Robert Brusca, senior economist at FAO Economics, a research firm. “Donald Trump is dreaming.”
Since the Great Recession, growth has averaged 2%. Brusca and the other economists surveyed say that 4% growth is impossible, or at least highly unlikely. The reasons: Unemployment is already really low, lots of Baby Boomers are retiring, and there are far fewer manufacturing jobs today than in past decades…
So what’s realistic? The San Francisco Fed estimates the “new normal” for annual economic growth to be 1.5% to 1.75%. That’s far lower than the period from World War II to 2004, when growth typically hovered between 3%
Two years later? It’s pundits who were, clearly, dreaming–and Donald Trump who has delivered a booming economy to the American people.
