Ooof: Trump Talks Up Tomorrow's GDP Number, Floats 5.3% as a Possibility

This guy doesn't understand the underpromise/overdeliver thing.

In a talk about the economy going on right now, Trump said that some had predicted 5.3% growth -- not 5.2% as one analyst predicted, but 5.3%.

Maybe sensing that he was setting himself up in a no-win situation by setting the bar so high, he then said he'd be happy with anything with a "4" in front of it. Then he said something with a 3 in front of it would be "okay" (he said this with a slight grimace), so long as the 3 was followed by a 7, 8, or 9.

He then said that these numbers were "unthinkable," and said that if he had talked about such numbers during the campaign, the media would have said he was "exaggerating."

I actually have a memory of him talking about 4+% growth during the campaign, and I bet the media did in fact laugh at this as pie-in-the-sky, but it doesn't seem important enough to do a bunch of searches to confirm.

PS, it was probably Obstruction of Justice for Trump to talk up a range of numbers from 3.7% to 5.3%.

posted by Ace of Spades at 04:44 PM

| Access Comments