By Alan Jaffe and Lori Robertson
ANALYSIS — In a campaign-style rally in Pennsylvania on Dec. 9, President Donald Trump honed a message of “lower prices, bigger paychecks” ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Some of his talking points on the economy missed the mark.
- The president falsely claimed he had “inherited the worst inflation” in U.S. history and that it “stopped” since he returned to the White House. The worst inflation period occurred after World War I, and inflation was up 3 percent for the 12-month period ending in September.
- Trump was right to say that oil prices had declined, but the data are mixed for “energy prices,” a phrase he also used.
- The national average for a regular gallon of gasoline is $2.94. Trump claimed it was at $1.99 in three or four states, but no state average is that low. Some individual gas stations advertised such prices in four states.
- He exaggerated when he said he had attracted about $18 trillion in new investments in the United States since January. A White House webpage says the total is $9.6 trillion as of Dec. 10, and experts say many of those “investments” are only promises that shouldn’t be counted yet.
- Trump took credit for the creation of 4,000 new manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania, but Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that in the U.S. overall, manufacturing jobs are down 49,000 since January.
- The president repeated an old claim that “more Americans are working today” than ever before, but that’s largely due to population growth. The employment-population ratio is down slightly since January.
