COMMENTARY: Time for some good news: The Donald Trump economy is booming
This has been a tough week in Las Vegas. But we are “Vegas Strong.” I have many troubling observations and questions about the terror attack. But I think Vegas needs to heal. I’ll save that column for later.
America needs to heal too. We have suffered four consecutive body blows in the past six weeks. Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria and now the Vegas mass murder. The media live by the mantra, “If it bleeds, it leads.” And they have served us nonstop headlines of crisis, death and destruction.
But amid all these negative headlines, we missed some remarkably positive economic news. What Vegas and America need now is some great news. The kind of news that makes you smile and pound your fist in the air. And I’ve got it — at least if you’re a fan of Donald Trump. The rest of you might want to run and hide now.
The president has already produced arguably the greatest economic results in American history. You might have missed that in the media. But here are the facts.
First, Trump’s remarkable stock market performance. The Dow has risen almost 25 percent since Election Day. That’s an increase of more than 4,300 points in about 11 months. That’s the biggest increase in that period of time in the history of the stock market.
The S&P 500 has passed $20 trillion in value for the first time in history.
President Trump is also the only president in history to oversee two nine-day or longer stock rallies (where new highs are reached each day). Included in that record is the 12-day rally ending on Feb. 28 — matching the all-time record set by President Ronald Reagan in 1987.
Since Trump’s election, the stock market has hit 63 closing highs, with 46 since the inauguration. On the other hand, Barack Obama had exactly zero stock market highs in his first four years in office.
In total, President Trump has added more than $5 trillion to the U.S. economy since his election. Remarkable. That’s called star power. That’s real hope and change.
A humble reminder: In RJ columns before the election, I predicted Trump would be our Reagan — the greatest economic president of our generation. As Muhammad Ali said, “It ‘ain’t bragging if you can back it up.”
But I’m just getting started.
Then there’s the gross domestic product. As I’ve always argued, GDP is a far more important economic indicator than the stock market. GDP is hard evidence of how “mom and pop” are doing on Main Street. Obama’s eight-year GDP average was 1.3 percent — the same number we saw during the Great Depression. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. GDP has now been adjusted to a remarkable 3.1 percent in the second quarter (Trump’s first full quarter as president). That’s almost two-and-a-half times higher than Obama’s average GDP over his two terms.
That grew our total GDP to almost $20 trillion — the highest in history.
Now let’s talk about the job explosion. President Trump added 1.33 million jobs from January through September versus Obama’s record of losing 4.59 million jobs in that same first nine months. Remarkable.
But the latest jobs report just came out on Friday. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Household Survey, the number of employed Americans increased by an amazing 906,000 for the month of September. But that’s not even the highlight.
Remember that almost every single job created in eight years under Obama was a crappy, low-wage, part-time job. Well under President Trump last month, full-time jobs (the kind we all want and need) increased by 935,000 — the most in one month in the 21st century.
It was also one of the four highest increases in American history.
And President Trump is doing it without spending record sums of taxpayer money. Trump added $400 billion (a 2 percent increase) to the U.S. debt since January. In the same time period, President Obama added $1.3 trillion of debt (a 12 percent increase). That’s almost $1 trillion more than Trump.
Yes, we are “Vegas Strong” in the face of tragedy. But start spreading the news. This economy is “Trump Strong.”
Contact Wayne Allyn Root at Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com. Hear or watch the nationally syndicated “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now and at 5 p.m. on Newsmax TV.