Donald Trump is used to getting fact checked by the media, which happens pretty much nonstop throughout the day, every day. And while it’s pretty rare that Trump would get corrected by his own team (in fact, he makes them defend and spin his lies), it’s truly an amazing moment when it happens.
Earlier today, Trump got completely humiliated by his own economic advisor when Kevin Hassett, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, spoke up at the White House’s press briefing and set the record straight about a tweet Trump had posted earlier in the day.
In an attempt to make former President Obama look bad, Trump posted a fake quote that didn’t even exist (and wasn’t true):
The GDP Rate (4.2%) is higher than the Unemployment Rate (3.9%) for the first time in over 100 years!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2018
Obama never said those words, and Hassett called his own boss out on it. When the tweet came up in the press briefing about Trump’s economic “success,” Hassett made the entire press corps giggle when he said, “I can tell you what is true.”
At first, Hassett tried to sidestep answering the question by saying, “I’m not the chairman of council of Twitter advisers.” But eventually, he gave the press a real response, admitting that Trump’s tweet was 100 percent false. He said:
I don’t know the whole chain of command, but what is true is that it’s the highest in ten years, and at some point, somebody probably conveyed it to him, adding a zero to that, and they shouldn’t have done that. When the press finds mistakes that we make, we don’t like making mistakes, but we’re grateful when they’re pointed out, because we want to correct them… you would have to talk to the president about where the number came from, but the correct number is ten years.”
This is one for the books – and people absolutely loved it!
Trump’s own top economist — Kevin Hassett — just said this is flat out wrong. It’s the best in 10 years…. NOT 100 years.
“What is true is it’s the highest in 10 years. At some point someone conveyed it to him adding a zero to that and he shouldn’t have done that.” – Hassett https://t.co/QRcdqarve5
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) September 10, 2018
Worth noting that an aide to the president is acknowledging Trump was spreading false information earlier this morning (though Hassett blamed WH aides). Most of the time the WH never admits this.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) September 10, 2018
You can watch this shocking moment of truth from Trump’s White House below:
Featured image via screen capture
