COMMENTARY: Donald Trump produces an economic miracle
I don’t mean to say I told you so. But I told you so. As the great Muhammad Ali said, “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up.”
Since the day Donald J. Trump declared his candidacy for president (almost three years ago), I’ve predicted that he would turn around the miserable Obama economy and produce the biggest economic boom since Ronald Reagan.
I even gave this Trump economic turnaround a catchy name: The Trump Miracle.
Don’t look now, but Trump may actually be better than Reagan.
Reagan produced millions of good-paying middle-class jobs, unprecedented prosperity and an historical economic expansion. But Trump is on track to surpass Reagan’s economic success.
Let’s start with the May jobs report. U.S. job growth sharply accelerated. Non-farm payrolls increased by 223,000, smashing expectations by 33,000 jobs. Manufacturing gained 18,000 jobs. Construction gained 25,000 jobs. Mining gained almost 6,000 jobs.
The jobless rate is now 3.8 percent, the lowest since November 1969. Yes, I said 1969.
Wages are up 2.7 percent for the year. Happy days are here again. A wage increase of any size was just a rumor during the eight years under Barack Obama.
But I haven’t gotten to the really good news yet. The number of full-time jobs rose by 904,000 for May. That’s the biggest monthly increase this century.
We also lost 625,000 low-quality, low-wage, part-time jobs. I call them “Obama jobs.” Good riddance. In the Obama era, every new job required food stamps and free health care to survive.
The Trump Miracle produces the exact opposite. With Trump’s economy, its all full-time, high-wage jobs.
More good news. The United States has moved back to No. 1 in the world on the Global Competitiveness Index. Thanks to President Trump’s massive tax cuts and killing of regulations, we’re now ahead of booming economies such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Switzerland.
One more incredible statistic. A record 35 percent of small businesses reported paying higher wages to employees last month. Seventy-four percent of employers plan to pay $11 per hour or higher, compared to 53 percent a year ago. Small business is exploding under Trump.
Why is this happening? First, Trump cut taxes dramatically, so business owners can now afford to share the wealth. Second, Trump is killing regulations at the fastest pace of any president in history, so business owners can spend their money on paying higher wages instead of on legal bills.
And, third, here’s the big one: Trump’s strict immigration policies are working overtime (excuse the pun). Forty percent of employers are using E-Verify to hire only legal American citizens — up from 25 percent last year.
Now to a little personal example. I’m on the front lines of the economy. I have no safe job, no safe paycheck, no pension. I am a small businessman and entrepreneur. Which means I spend my life pitching deals and hustling 24/7. I’m the perfect laboratory experiment for whether the economy is working.
Under Obama, I pitched many deals but never raised one dollar in eight long years. Everything has changed under Trump. The world of money has opened up. Everyone is buying again. Everyone is writing checks again. I’m raising money for business deals — and groups are banging down my doors to invest. Investors are begging me to take their checks.
That never happened in eight long years under Obama.
It’s a new day under President Trump. We are free to make money again. We are free to practice capitalism without guilt. The sun is out. The skies are blue. There’s a job in every pot. The Trump Miracle lives.
President Donald J. Trump should be the runaway winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics.
I told you so.
Contact Wayne Allyn Root at Wayne@ROOTforAmerica.com.
