Trump takes credit for Obama’s work at SOTU address

President Donald Trump is yet again receiving bad press after his second state of the union (SOTU) address where he took credit for achievements made by his predecessor Barack Obama.

Fact checkers reveal some of the misleading, inaccurate and out of context remarks that came out of Trump’s address on Tuesday. One of them being claiming achievements he already found underway after taking over from Obama.

Some of the things he is said to have claimed from Obama’s administration include:

  1. The economic boom: “In just over two years since the election, we have launched an unprecedented economic boom — a boom that has rarely been seen before,” Trump said. However, it is revealed that Trump took office amid a booming economy. This is as government shutdown, tariffs and trade wars seen during his tenure have  slowed the economy. According to NBC News, in the 24 months since Trump has been in office, total non-farm employment has grown by nearly 4.9 million. Over the same period of Obama’s tenure, total non-farm employment grew by about 5.1 million.
  2. Making America the number one producer of oil and natural gas: “We have unleashed a revolution in American energy. The United States is now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas in the world,” said Trump. Conversely, America began leading in production of the mentioned products during Obama’s time; Petroleum since 2013 and Natural gas since 2011.
  3. Rebuilding the military: Trump took credit for a legislation he signed to fund national defense. A bill that was in 2011 signed by Obama but failed to pass due to Republican opposition. For fiscal year 2019, Trump has signed into law National Defense Authorization legislation that provides $716 billion for national defense operations. A smaller amount compared to the $726 billion provided by the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act under Obama administration (NBC).

Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives issued a statement on the state of the nation address, while saying that it would take days to fact-check the misrepresentation on Trump’s address.

Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler titled his fact checker report ‘Year of Lies.’

Besides taking credit for Obama’s work, Trump is reported to also have made inaccurate remarks such as saying that, “there’s nothing anywhere in the world that can compete with America,” referring to its economy. However, the International Monetary Fund’s most recent estimates that India is projected to have the highest rate of economic growth among major economies in 2019 and 2020.

Economists who use a measure called purchasing power parity, according to NBC News, also do not project the U.S as the biggest economy, but China.

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