It’s not like it’s that hard to make either Donald Trump or his oldest son look stupid — each of them pours gasoline on a smoldering pile of dumbassery essentially all day long every day, whether it’s in interviews, rubbing elbows with dignitaries, or just tweeting idiotic nonsense on social media.
But there’s something especially satisfying about proving them absolutely, unequivocally wrong about a thing that’s easy to fact-check. Neither of them ever admits that they’re wrong, of course, but still, seeing facts and figures contradicting their idiocy is almost inordinately gratifying.
So when CNBC’s chief Washington correspondent John Harwood tweeted out some figures this afternoon that corrected claims made by both the President and his spoiled son about economic growth and how Trump’s legacy stacks up against former President Barack Obama’s, it put a huge smile on our faces.
On the 22nd, the President tweeted about how proud he was of the “best number” in nearly a decade and a half.
3.1 GDP FOR THE YEAR, BEST NUMBER IN 14 YEARS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2019
Of course, the numbers released at that time were not adjusted according to the standard variations that come shortly after jobs and economic growth numbers are initially released. Sure enough, less than a week after Trump made the claim, the Bureau of Economic Analysis — Trump’s own people — issued a report saying that with the fourth quarter numbers included, the yearly average was not the 3.1 GDP Trump touted, but a paltry 2.85, not even the highest number in the last five years, let alone fourteen.
John helpfully let Trump know what the real numbers were:
update from Commerce Dept’s Bureau of Economic Analysis today:
Q4-Q4 2018 growth now 2.97%
average annual 2018 growth now 2.85%, slightly below the 2.88% in 2015 https://t.co/DTq29xbQYE
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 28, 2019
But one can understand a President being excited about what he thought was the case when he wrote the tweet.
What Don Jr. tweeted back in October, however, was so sarcastic and cocksure — being as he was attempting to mock Obama, even including a video clip of him — that when Harwood quote-tweeted it with a correction, it made Junior look like… well, like a huge asshole, honestly:
This is the dumbest statement in the history of both politics and economics.
Remember when @realDonaldTrump said he would hit 4% GDP growth and you said “There’s no magic want for that”?
Well ABRACADABRA @barackobama, we are at 4.2%. You just needed a leader to get it done! https://t.co/y1gmDAW47s
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 24, 2018
The problem? Junior was talking as though the 4.2% figure was for the whole year — when nobody even reported it that way. He just didn’t understand how fiscal year quarters work, something pretty troubling for the son of a supposed billionaire.
Harwood had a treat for him as well:
abracadabra update:
growth declined steadily through rest of 2018
4.2% in Q2, 3.4% in Q3, 2.2% in Q4
average annual 2018 growth per BEA today:
2.85%, just below 2.88% during Obama presidency in 2015 https://t.co/icmLjs1UhM
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 28, 2019
These two geniuses couldn’t make a better father-son team.
Featured image via screen capture
