The Trump win was supposed to sink the economy. Instead, things—at least so far—seem to be looking up. And so a new media narrative has just been launched: If Donald Trump succeeds, it will be because President Barack Obama gave him such a great push. How else to explain the near simultaneous publication of two articles on Friday, one in Politico, the other at FiveThirtyEight.
The first is “Trump Inherits Obama Boom” by Politico‘s Ben White, with the subheadline, “The president is handing his successor an economy that’s now the envy of the world.” The second, over at FiveThirtyEight, come from Ben Casselman and is headlined, “Trump Will Benefit From Obama’s Strong Job Market.” To Casselman’s credit (or that of his editor), the subhead is a bit more measured: “Donald Trump will inherit a job market that is strong but perhaps not quite firing on all cylinders.”
Look for more articles of this sort: Silly Donald—he thought the economy was struggling and he just lucked into the White House when Obamanomics finally went into the high gear we always knew it would.
One’s reminded of the many foreign policy sages who, after Ronald Reagan’s policies bankrupted the Soviet military machine, came around to tell us that, hey, the Russians were hollowed out and going-broke all along—Reagan had nothing to do with ending the Cold War.
So, just remember, if the economy surges in the coming year, it’s the Obama Boom. Should, however, growth and employment collapse, the poor will be living in Trumpville, natch.
