Can Trump really take credit for US economic growth before the pandemic? RT’s Boom Bust finds out

The US stock market and employment rate hit record highs under Donald Trump’s presidency before Covid-19 started to rattle the economy. However, the picture might be not as rosy as Trump painted, analysts say.

“The biggest weird thing about President Trump taking a lot of credit for things that simply aren’t true,” the author of ‘Understanding Socialism’ and the host of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff, told RT’s Boom Bust.

“However you may measure it, whatever you may think of China...but in terms of economic growth and development there’s no contest, the United States comes far second to the People's Republic of China.”

Wolff also points out that numbers show that the gap between the rich and the poor has only widened under Trump, adding that growing inequality will have “serious” consequences for the US economy.

“The coronavirus took down most of the improvements in the unemployment rate,” said John Quelch, Dean of Miami Herbert Business School, who joined the discussion. 

“The President’s agenda for re-election has been completely derailed by Covid,” he told Boom Bust, adding Trump can now only hope that enough voters believe that he has a “better chance” to restore the virus-hit economy.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section