Letter: Complaints about Trump misleading

A recent letter blaming President Donald Trump for ruining the economy is very misleading and contains many unsubstantiated claims:

Claim #1: IRA investment losses: the writer provides no details on which IRA was "ruined." Instead, nearly everyone's IRAs gained in 2016-2020. But even in a booming economy, some IRA fund managers make bets on companies that don't work out. Or people withdraw their funds at bad times.

Claim #2: Unemployment went up: When President Donald Trump took office, unemployment was 5.1%. By late January 2020, it was the lowest ever: 3.1%. True, there was a sharp increase after March 2020, but that was due entirely to COVID Lockdowns.

Claim #3: GDP fell: GDP has gone up every year since the Depression regardless of who was in office. Specifically to President Donald Trump, GDP was $18.7 trillion when he took office. When he left in 2020, it was $21.1 trillion, in spite of COVID lockdowns.

Claim #4: Inflation: The inflation rate when Trump took office was 2.3%, when he left, it was almost another record low: 1.3%. Perhaps the writer should direct his ire at Mr. Biden, because the current Consumer Price Index is 7% for 2021-2022 post-COVID.

Claim #5 Federal deficits: The federal deficit did go up during the Trump administration but only moderately until COVID hit. The big jump in 2020 was entirely due to the bipartisan vote to spend billions to develop the COVID vaccine, federal PPP loans, bailouts and the like. Mr. Biden was forced to continue heavy spending in 2021, again because of COVID costs and bailouts.

Claim #6: Fewer people on the road causes gas price to drop: Well, yeah, when COVID lockdowns hit, everyone stayed home.

Claim #7: Trump disbanded the CDC virus program: This has been debunked several times in many media outlets, including the Daily Herald. The real story is about 8 staffers in the department were fired for financial mismanagement and ghosting jobs.

John Becker

Downers Grove