President Donald Trump says he resuscitated Barack Obama’s gasping economy and proceeded to build it to its strongest in generations. Now as record job losses mount across the country, the decline will bear his name in history as well. And those losses come just six months before the election.
Presidents of both parties take credit for the economy when it’s roaring and are usually blamed when it fails, regardless of the circumstances of the downturn. An unemployment rate for April of 14.7%, the highest since the 1930s, is difficult for any politician to keep at arm’s length.
The collapse robs Trump of his chief argument for re-election and will fuel his drive to quickly “reopen” the U.S economy, even as solid majorities of Americans are reluctant to return to public life.