RNC 2020
Larry Kudlow's claim that Trump inherited a 'stagnant economy' gets pushback from fact-checkers
During his Republican National Convention speech on Tuesday night, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow touted his work with President Trump's campaign in 2016, saying that he helped craft an economic plan that was a "roaring success," considering Trump inherited "a stagnant economy on the front end of recession."
This statement received pushback from the fact-checkers at The Washington Post, with Glenn Kessler writing that under former President Barack Obama, the United States added more than 250,000 jobs every month in 2014, 227,000 a month in 2015, and 193,000 per month in 2016.
In 2017, during Trump's first year in office, monthly job growth dipped to 179,000 each month, then went back up to 223,000 a month in 2018, which, Kessler notes, was lower than under Obama in 2014 and 2015. In 2019, the number dropped to 175,000 a month. In 2018, Trump claimed that under his leadership, there had been an "economic turnaround of historic proportions," but by this point the United States had been adding jobs for 94 straight months, Kessler writes.