US economy soars as GDP climbs 4.1%, CNN won’t give Trump is due
The U.S. economy exhibited amazing growth in the second quarter of 2018, with the gross domestic product (GDP) climbing 4.1%, nearly doubling the first quarter, which was revised up to 2.2%.
The booming rate is the highest since the third quarter of 2014 and just the third-highest since the Great Recession began in 2008.
The running four-quarter average is 3.1%, considered by economists to be a very strong number.
In Q2 of 2018, consumer spending grew 4%, while nonresidential business investment jumped 7.3%, both also considered strong numbers.
President Trump took credit in a proverbial victory lap on the White House’s South Lawn, telling reporters that the high numbers are “sustainable.”
“We’re going to go a lot higher,” Trump said. “As the trade deals come in one by one, we’re going to go a lot higher than these numbers, and these are great numbers. …
“We’ve accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions,” Trump said. “Once again, we are the economic envy of the entire world.”
CNN, the bias anti-Trump news network, struggled to credit the President, publishing one story as “the full story” on the economy’s growth, claiming: “This is not sustainable,” said KC Mathews, chief investment officer at Kansas City-based UMB Bank. “Maybe we get a soft landing. Growth will slow, but we may not have a recession. Growth could go back to about a 2% to 2.5% level.”
In another, the CNN writer stated that Trump deserved “some credit”: “…the President’s hyperbolic assessment of his own performance is at odds with the facts.”
Adding: “There’s also plenty of scope to quibble with the substance of Trump’s economic claims. While growth may be roaring, critics say the tax cuts may not filter down significantly to blue-collar Americans and are certain to widen economic inequality.”