invoked George Floyd’s name over jobs numbers?

In a June 2020 press conference, Trump boasted about better than expected job figures amid the COVID-19 pandemic. During the speech, he invoked George Floyd, who was killed at the hands of police.

We all saw what happened last week. We can’t let that happen. Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, “This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.” This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality. It’s really what our Constitution requires and it’s what our country is all about.

PBS White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor inquired about the jobs numbers, noting that minority unemployment rates had still increased, to which Trump replied, “you’re really something.”

CNBC – Trump caps chaotic week with a victory lap over better-than-expected jobs report
Business Insider – Trump suggests George Floyd is ‘looking down’ from heaven and appreciating the ‘great day in terms of equality’ after an unexpectedly strong jobs report was announced

said the economy does better under Democrat leadership?

In a 2004 interview, Trump said he identified more with Democrats because he believed that the economy does better under their leadership.

I’ve been around for a long time and it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump blamed Obama, Democratic presidential candidates, and the federal reserve for economic problems during his tenure.

I think the financial markets are very upset when they look at the Democrat candidates on that stage making fools out of themselves.

The Fed was not good, as far as I’m concerned, and that was a big blip that should not have taken place, should not have happened…that was just killer when they raised the rate, it was just a big mistake, and they admit to it.

Forbes -Trump Is Right About One Thing: ‘The Economy Does Better Under The Democrats’
Politifact – Does the economy always do better under Democratic presidents? 

said, “it’s not like we have a massive recession or worse” during a pandemic and record unemployment?

Trump made the remark during a press conference about the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the 10 million unemployment claims across the preceding two weeks, Trump claimed that the economic side of the crisis was “artificial” because of forced business closures.

The day of his remark, the United States reported a total of over 278,000 cases and 7,000 deaths.

The week prior, Trump bragged about his press conferences’ TV ratings.

Washington Post – Over 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in March as economy collapsed
Politico – ’No words for this’: 10 million workers file jobless claims in just two weeks
Fox Business – Unemployment claims spiked to new record last week, with 6.6M Americans filing for aid
Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)

claimed that the economic damage from shutting down the country would be more deadly than COVID-19?

During a virtual town hall on Fox News, Trump said about business closures without evidence that “more people are going to die if we allow this to continue.”

He went on to say, “We have to open this country up. We can socially distance ourselves and go to work, and you’ll have to work a little bit harder and you can clean your hands five times more than you’re used to. You don’t have to shake hands anymore with people. We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to the flu – we never turn the country off. We lose much more than that to automobile accidents. We don’t call up automobile companies and say ‘stop making cars.”

He seemed to indicate that the only reason he allowed such measures in the first place was because of criticism if he hadn’t. “If I would have not done it, we would’ve been unbelievably criticized for not doing it. Somehow the word got out that this is the thing we’re supposed to be doing.”

Trump planned to reopen the economy nationwide by Easter. At the time, the United States had over 65,000 confirmed cases.

During the same town hall, he also wrongly claimed that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo rejected a chance to purchase 15,000 ventilators and said that state governors should treat him well if they want help.

Fox News – EXCLUSIVE: Trump, Coronavirus task force participate in Fox News town hall
Business Insider – Trump just gave a disastrous coronavirus town hall full of misinformation that could kill thousands
The New York Times – AP FACT CHECK: Trump Claims Rising Suicides if US Stays Shut
Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) 

removed 1 million children from a food stamps program with free school lunches?

The Department of Agriculture estimated that 982,000 children no longer automatically qualify for free school lunches. 45% will have additional application requirements, while the rest will no longer qualify at all.

Business Insider – A new Trump administration rule will deprive nearly 1 million school kids of automatic free lunches, official figures say
ABC News – Trump rule may mean 1 million kids lose automatic free lunch
CBS News – Half a million kids could lose free school lunches under new Trump administration rule

asked his top economic adviser to “print money” to lower US debt?

In Bob Woodward’s 2018 book Fear, former chief economic advisor Gary Cohn explained Trump’s suggestion to deal with the United States’ record national debt: “Just run the presses — print money.”

Printing money to offset debt can lead to runaway inflation, which Cohn said he went on to explain to the President.

Trump made similar remarks in his campaign about how the United States could never default because it could simply print more money.

Cohn also described Trump as “an idiot surrounded by clowns” that is “less a person than a collection of terrible traits.”

CNBC – Trump told Gary Cohn to ‘print money’ to lower the national debt, according to Bob Woodward’s book
CNN – Trump: U.S. will never default ‘because you print the money’
The Hill – Trump’s plan to help eliminate the federal debt was to print money: Woodward book

was described by his top economic adviser as “an idiot surrounded by clowns” that is “less a person than a collection of terrible traits”?

Quoted by Michael Wolff in his 2018 book Fire and Fury, the email by Cohn reads as follows:

It’s worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything–not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he’s smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family.

 

I hate the work, but feel I need to stay because I’m the only person there with a clue what he’s doing. The reason so few jobs have been filled is that they only accept people who pass ridiculous purity tests, even for midlevel policy-making jobs where the people will never see the light of day. I am in a constant state of shock and horror.

In Fear, the 2018 book by Bob Woodward, Cohn described two instances in which he removed documents from Trump’s desk so they wouldn’t be signed. The documents would have canceled trade agreements with South Korea and initiated a unilateral withdrawal from NAFTA.

Trump also asked Cohn to print more money in order to pay off US debt.

Gary Cohn at Regional Media Day (cropped).png
Gary Cohn. Wikipedia

Cohn served as the White House’s chief economic advisor from January 2017 to April 2018, when he resigned over Trump’s decision to institute tariffs against China.

CBS News – Gary Cohn answers question about future at White House: “I’m here today”
Business Insider – Gary Cohn reportedly snatched documents off Trump’s desk to prevent him from wrecking 2 massive trade deals
The Hill – Woodward: Economic adviser ‘stole a letter off Trump’s desk’
CNBC – Gary Cohn resigns as Trump’s top economic advisor
Wikipedia – Gary Cohn

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