There’s no questioning how Donald Trump would rate the economy for his time in office. The president took to Twitter amid renewed legal troubles this week to highlight a few things going right for the U.S.
“Our Economy is setting records on virtually every front – Probably the best our country has ever done. Tremendous value created since the Election,” the president said in a tweet Friday. “The World is respecting us again! Companies are moving back to the U.S.A.”
Since the election, the S&P 500 is up more than 33 percent, advancing a historic bull run that began in 2009. Unemployment has fallen to 3.9 percent under Trump to the around the lowest since 1969, and the economy expanded at a 4.1 percent pace last quarter.
Earlier Friday, Trump referenced Target CEO Brian Cornell’s optimistic consumer spending comments from an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.
“Target CEO raves about the Economy. ‘This is the best consumer environment I’ve seen in my career.’ A big statement from a top executive. But virtually everybody is saying this, & when our Trade Deals are made, & cost cutting done, you haven’t seen anything yet!,” Trump tweeted at 4:57 a.m. EST Friday.
The retailer’s shares surged after reporting second-quarter results that beat on earnings, revenue and comparable store sales. Target also reported a huge jump in foot traffic.
The stock market barely reacted this week after news that two of Trump’s former advisors face prison sentences. His longtime attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts related to tax fraud, excessive campaign contributions, making false statements to a financial institution and unlawful corporate contributions. Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort was found guilty Tuesday of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to file foreign bank account reports.
Cohen implicated the president in a scheme to silence two women from making public their claims about having affairs with Trump. But according to traders, the market right now expects Trump to avoid impeachment unless the special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller links Trump directly to collusion with Russia to sway the 2016 election.
In an interview that aired Thursday, Trump told Fox News that the stock market would tank if he were removed from office.
“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor,” the president said in a Fox News interview that aired Thursday. “I got rid of regulations. The tax cut was a tremendous thing.”
