Donald Trump Takes Bizarre Third-Person Credit for Consumer Confidence Index

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:44 pm

In yet another fit of self-love and overweening pride, President-Elect – that is not President Donald Trump, tweeted a bizarre third person tweet taking credit for the U.S. Consumer Confidence Index:

The U.S. Consumer Confidence Index for December surged nearly four points to 113.7, THE HIGHEST LEVEL IN MORE THAN 15 YEARS! Thanks Donald!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016

Reuters explained that,

“The Conference Board said on Tuesday its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 113.7 this month from an upwardly revised 109.4 in November. That topped estimates in a Reuters poll for a reading of 109.0, and was the highest since August 2001.”

To listen to Trump, it is almost as if the past eight years, and President Obama’s restoration of our economy in the face of endless GOP obstruction, never took place.

When Obama took office, the Consumer Confidence Index was a woeful 37.7 and had gone up 86 percent just four years later. By the end of 2014, consumer confidence was back to it’s January 2007 high.

It is difficult to say whether Trump’s self-congratulatory tweet or the fact that it quickly amassed 30K “likes” was more disturbing. Because, as one observer noted,

You mean, Thanks Obama. Obama is still the President of the United States. HE gets the credit. Not you, you blithering idiot. #TheResistance https://t.co/fL7hPBGl5Y

— Justice ⚖ Prevails (@BlueVindication) December 28, 2016

Of course, Trump’s claim to what does not belong to him is in keeping with another bizarre post-Christmas claim of his:

The world was gloomy before I won – there was no hope. Now the market is up nearly 10% and Christmas spending is over a trillion dollars!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2016

So his ego is at least consistently over-inflated. There is that. Trumpists are calling it “The Trump Effect.” Apparently, all he touches and all that flows from him is gold, explaining that golden toilet in Trump Tower.

It is anyone’s guess what Trump’s next miracle will be.

Trump had all along pretended the US economy was in shambles, despite all President Obama’s hard work restoring it to pre-crash levels. Trump claimed he would restore the economy Obama had already restored, and this is his mendacious promise come to fruition.

In GOP annals, it will not be President Obama who performed the economic miracle. Just as Obama got the blame for all President Bush’s misdeeds, Trump will get all the credit for President Obama’s good deeds.

It is not “thanks, Donald” but “thanks, Obama.” Credit must go where it is due, and Donald Trump and his raging ego are out of line. In four years, the “Trump effect” will mean something very different.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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