On his way out the White House door, it looks like President Obama handed Trump the keys to an economic jalopy.
New Gross Domestic Product numbers, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, show a slowing economy. In the third quarter, the economy revved to a 3.5 percent pace before sputtering to 1.9 percent rate in the fourth quarter.
Politically and statically, those numbers are disappointing. They mark the slowest acceleration since the eve of the 2012 election and the lowest ebb of Obama’s economy during his second term. And it was below expectations — a Reuters poll of top economists projected GDP increasing by at least 2.2 percent in Obama’s final quarter.
At the same time though, Americans are more confident in the economy today than they were throughout all of Obama’s tenure — Gallup puts it at its highest point since January 2008, when Gallup started tracking economic confidence.
That sets a high bar for Trump. Glancing at blueprints from the New Deal and the Reagan Revolution, Trump’s promising a complete rebuild even though those kits are fundamentally incompatible.
Trump’s got until April 28 to cobble something together. That’s when first quarter 2017 growth is reported.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
