In 2004, NBC News sat down with a prominent real estate developer named Donald Trump, who shared a notable observation based on his experience in the private sector. “The economy does better under the Democrats than under the Republicans,” he said.
Trump has had a lengthy career in public life, and this was one of the few instances when his comments on the economy were correct.
It’s a debate Republicans tend to avoid, but since the end of World War II, on every leading metric — from job growth to economic growth to stock market performance — the American economy during Democratic administrations has easily outperformed the results during Republican administrations.
It should be lost on no one that in the past half-century there have been recessions under every Republican president, and economic recoveries under every Democratic president.
And yet, for reasons that remain difficult to understand, much of the country has shrugged off the real-world evidence and unambiguous results. In fact, in recent years, polls have consistently shown that Americans have more confidence in Republicans when it comes to handling the economy.
This pattern made the latest Fox News poll that much more notable. The Hill reported:
A new Fox News poll found Democrats have the edge over Republicans on economic issues for the first time since 2010.
The survey, released Wednesday, found that 52 percent of respondents think Democrats would do a better job on the economy, while 48 percent backed Republicans on the issue.
In the Fox News poll conducted last summer, the GOP advantage on the economy was down to just 1 point, but in the newly released data from the network’s latest national survey, it was Democrats with a 4-point advantage.
Looking solely at Fox News’ polling history, this is the first time Democrats have had any advantage on the issue since their 3-point lead over Republicans in May 2010, as Barack Obama and congressional Democrats helped rescue the economy from the George W. Bush-era Great Recession.
Hours after the results were released, Trump once again boasted at a White House event, “We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had.”
That was nonsense, of course, and it’s an absurdity rejected by the American mainstream. Not only have Democrats regained their advantage on the economy, but the same Fox News poll found that only 34% Americans approve of the president’s handling of the economy.
Patently false White House happy talk, in other words, isn’t moving the needle.
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