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In June 2016, Trump tweeted nine charts criticizing Obama. Let's see how he stacks up.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump shared a collection of charts showing how Obama's economy was failing. I went back and evaluated his first two years on all nine metrics.
Link to tweet
Put another way: https://wapo.st/2ISMtJm
Link to tweet
Politics Analysis
In June 2016, Trump tweeted nine charts criticizing Obama. Let’s see how he stacks up.
President Trump held a rally in Green Bay, Wis., on Saturday. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
By Philip Bump
April 30 at 1:18 PM
In early June 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump shared a set of nine graphs meant to demonstrate how President Barack Obama’s economic policies were failing. They were cribbed from Bloomberg News’s data system and overlaid with heavy red arrows ostensibly showing how good things had declined and bad things had increased during Obama’s time in office.
"@TaylorEdwards99: THIS IS @POTUS'S LEGACY! AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER!!! WE NEED @realDonaldTrump NOW!! #MAGA #TRUMP2016
We noted at the time that the trends indicated — when we could identify what the actual data were — generally showed the continuation of trends that had begun under President George W. Bush. That was the point, writers at the conservative site ZeroHedge (which had produced the graphs) argued in response: Things hadn’t gotten better.
With more than two years of Trump’s presidency now in the history books, we figured it was a good time to revisit those nine graphs to see whether the trends had shifted and, if so, when the reversals had begun. It’s important to note that not all of these metrics are objectively negative, so apply whichever grains of salt you deem appropriate.
We walk through them from left to right, top to bottom below. We used data beginning in 2000 for each chart through the most recent data point. (When data weren’t available for 2000, we used the oldest available data as a starting point.)
{snip}
Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York. Before joining The Post in 2014, he led politics coverage for the Atlantic Wire. Follow https://twitter.com/pbump
In June 2016, Trump tweeted nine charts criticizing Obama. Let’s see how he stacks up.
President Trump held a rally in Green Bay, Wis., on Saturday. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
By Philip Bump
April 30 at 1:18 PM
In early June 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump shared a set of nine graphs meant to demonstrate how President Barack Obama’s economic policies were failing. They were cribbed from Bloomberg News’s data system and overlaid with heavy red arrows ostensibly showing how good things had declined and bad things had increased during Obama’s time in office.
"@TaylorEdwards99: THIS IS @POTUS'S LEGACY! AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER!!! WE NEED @realDonaldTrump NOW!! #MAGA #TRUMP2016
Link to tweet
We noted at the time that the trends indicated — when we could identify what the actual data were — generally showed the continuation of trends that had begun under President George W. Bush. That was the point, writers at the conservative site ZeroHedge (which had produced the graphs) argued in response: Things hadn’t gotten better.
With more than two years of Trump’s presidency now in the history books, we figured it was a good time to revisit those nine graphs to see whether the trends had shifted and, if so, when the reversals had begun. It’s important to note that not all of these metrics are objectively negative, so apply whichever grains of salt you deem appropriate.
We walk through them from left to right, top to bottom below. We used data beginning in 2000 for each chart through the most recent data point. (When data weren’t available for 2000, we used the oldest available data as a starting point.)
{snip}
Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York. Before joining The Post in 2014, he led politics coverage for the Atlantic Wire. Follow https://twitter.com/pbump
