Over 130,000 Americans are dead, 25 million are still out of a job and the unemployment rate is at 11 percent. But none of this matters to Donald Trump. Privately, he’s fuming about not receiving plaudits from the media for spearheading a ‘smashing economic recovery’, according to a report from the Daily Beast.
Three people who independently spoke to Trump told the Daily Beast, he makes a point of regularly complaining that the media has not given him kudos for leading the economic recovery. He also claimed Biden would have been celebrated if he was the one in the White House and Democrats would want to build statues honoring him for leading the recovering effort.
Trump’s frustration with the media coverage of the economic recovery, highlights just how crucial the economy is to his re-election bid. Despite the two most recent jobs report showing that the economy is improving as some businesses reopen and more people went back to work, Trump still trails Joe Biden by double digits in the polls. This is concerning to some members of his inner circle like economic adviser Stephen Moore.
Moore sent a study to the White House, ‘arguing that you’d see a lot more unemployment if unemployment benefits were extended with more generous benefits and no incentives for recipients to reenter the workforce. The study posits that the benefits in the first coronavirus-related stimulus package kept the jobless rate artificially higher than it otherwise would have been,’ according to the Daily Beast.
He also said: “If our numbers are accurate, it’s hard to see how Trump can get re-elected with millions and millions of people unemployed.”
On Thursday, the Labor Department said 4.8 million jobs were added over the last month ending in mid June. So, before the resurgence of the coronavirus that prompted many states to halt their reopening. Therefore, the White House declaring victory and Trump demanding praise, is a bit premature considering we aren’t out of the woods yet.
Read more from The Daily Beast.
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