Fact-Checking Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address and the Democratic Response
Fact-Checking Trump’s 2020 State of the Union Address and the Democratic Response
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/fact-check-state-of-the-union-02-04?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
"SNIP.....
President Trump spoke to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night, a day before the Senate was expected to acquit him in his impeachment trial. A team of New York Times reporters who cover the economy, national security, health care and more listened and fact-checked his claims as he speaks.
Mr. Trump exaggerated and inaccurately portrayed elements of his record, including that there has been a decline in drug overdose deaths for the first time in more than 30 years (mostly true), that the administration has sought to always protect Medicare and Social Security (misleading) and that there is a blue-collar boom (needs context).
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“This is a blue-collar boom. Real median household income is now at the highest level ever recorded.”
This needs context.
Real median household income is now at its highest levels. And average hourly earnings growth has accelerated under President Trump for manufacturing workers, outpacing inflation. But employment growth in manufacturing, which Mr. Trump promoted in his speech last year, slowed to fewer than 50,000 jobs in 2019 — the worst rate of his presidency and the second worst of the long recovery from recession. And job growth has slowed sharply — from 2.6 percent at the start of 2019 to 1.3 percent at the end of the year — in so-called middle-wage sectors that include mining, construction and transportation.
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