During the presidency of Barack Obama and vice presidency of Joe Biden, the United States saw the longest consecutive monthly job growth in its history.
This trend continued—albeit at a slower rate—under President Donald Trump, who repeatedly credited himself with the Obama-era achievement.
With Trump facing off against Biden in the 2020 election, the current President is doing everything in his power to sow doubt in Biden's ability to revive and maintain the economy.
Trump threatened on Twitter that "jobs would disappear" under a Biden presidency.
“Biden to raise taxes by 3 Trillion Dollars." Actually, it will be much more than that, and much of it on nonsense. Markets and your 401k's will CRASH. Jobs will disappear!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2020
But it's an inopportune time for Trump to make such a claim.
Trump's move to leave virus response up to individual states, rather than deploying a national strategy, was compounded by his frequent dismissal of the threat posed by the virus in its early stages.
As it spread throughout the United States, countless businesses were forced to shut down to slow the spread. April saw record new unemployment claims of over 20 million. New jobless claims remain in the millions and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed to over 10 percent.
While Trump is not to blame for the virus itself, his approval numbers reflect the critics who claim it was Trump's dismissal of it and his refusal to introduce an effective national strategy early on that exacerbated the virus's impact.
People reminded him that the jobs had already disappeared and they blamed him.
You already crashed the economy, bud. https://t.co/N1jABkmjSA
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) August 1, 2020
401k's have ALREADY crashed, and jobs have already disappeared, never to return because you FAILED to take the pandemic seriously.
You are the WORST "president" in the history of America.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) August 2, 2020
"Jobs will disappear," says the guy who wiped out all of the job gains since the Great Recession.
— Paul 👻 (@pablo_honey1) August 1, 2020
You already made the jobs disappear, sweetie. pic.twitter.com/AqXPev5Xc7
— Jedi, Interrupted 🏳️🌈 (@JediCounselor) August 1, 2020
Crash like this? pic.twitter.com/PkGmq7vKHU
— Rob Wagner 😷😷 (@wagner_rob) August 1, 2020
@BarackObama & @JoeBiden fixed economy last time a Republican President crashed economy, so I will gladly go with Biden to fix mess you created.
You had 3.5 years to make America great, but:
- you took a booming economy & totally wrecked it
- you killed >157,000 Americans so far.
— Withor 🌊 (@DocThor72) August 2, 2020
Twitter users didn't hesitate to express their frustration with Trump's leadership.
Trump gave tax cuts to the rich! He then told the middle class he would cut their taxes before the MidTerm(Lie)! He's now the rightful owner of the worst GDP in American History!
— Just Vent (@JustVent6) August 1, 2020
Hey donnie.. when you said Covid will dissapear in april.. you were right!!! Evenutally one year, in april it won't be there...
— Cheddar (@Cheddarus) August 2, 2020
Jobs...will...disappear?! I'm sorry, have you looked around lately?
— Bridget Smith Palmer (@bridget_palmer) August 2, 2020
The most recent data shows that new unemployment claims surpassed one million for the fourteenth week in a row last week.