Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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The Washington Post reported on Sarah Huckabee Sanders apology for saying that Trump had created more jobs for blacks in the first 20 months of his administration than Obama had in eight years. It then reported on her correction that in the first 20 months, dating from the election, Trump had created more jobs.
While the piece noted that economists think the president’s ability to affect the economy is limited, it would have been worth mentioning that the economy was in a free fall, losing 700,000 jobs a month at the time Obama was elected. The stimulus that he pushed through Congress first began to have an effect in April, and by the summer, the job loss had stopped. If anyone wants to make a serious comparison, this background is important.