October 21, 2018

Trump Tweets That a Blue Wave in November Would Hurt the Economy

“Think of what will happen to your now beautiful 401-k’s!”

President Donald Trump pauses as he speaks to media after a campaign rally before boarding Air Force One in Nevada.Carolyn Kaster/AP

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On Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump boasted yet again about the country’s job growth, arguing it’s just one reason why voters should elect Republicans during the November midterms. If Democrats emerged victorious after the November midterms, Trump tweeted, they “can never do even nearly as well!” 

While White House economist Kevin Hassett claimed last month that Trump’s time in office has set off economic growth, the truth is that overall job growth has steadily improved and unemployment has fallen since former President Barack Obama was in office. And in the 19 months Trump has been president, 3.6 million jobs have been created, slightly less than the 3.9 million jobs created over the same period at the end of Obama’s time in office. “When you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let’s just remember when this recovery started,” Obama told a crowd at the University of Illinois in September.  

Trump has previously said that Democrats will end the sweeping tax cuts he passed in 2017, which he says have made the economy “the strongest it’s ever been in the history of our nation.” San Francisco Fed economists Tim Mahedy and Daniel J. Wilson warned that assuming tax cuts would spur economic growth in an already strong economy is “overly optimistic.” At the same time, Vox reports that the tax cuts have been responsible for a ballooning $779 billion federal deficit, the largest since 2012. Sen. Kamala Harris and other Democrats have called for repealing the tax cuts.

On Saturday, Trump said that Republicans were preparing to unveil a “very major tax cut” for middle-income households before November. Congress doesn’t reconvene until November 13. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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