Too funny! You guys claim there was nothing wrong with Obama's 1.9% then you jump all over Trump because of 1.9% projections.
sigh
2% is not great, no matter who is President. However, context matters.
Obama presided over the recovery from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, including a global recession that reduced US exports. He also had to deal with an obstructionist Congress.
Obama and Trump share certain structural weaknesses and strengths. Overall though, Trump is in a very different situation. He came into office when most of the recovery was over, unemployment near historic lows, credit is still absurdly cheap, and a stock market that spent years on a tear.
Unfortunately, any President right now would face numerous structural issues, such as:
• Reduced global demand
• Very high income / economic inequality
• Debt mostly maxed out (especially on the consumer side)
• Aging population
• Increasing automation
• Boomers retiring
Thus, Trump hitting a 2% growth rate does not automatically produce cries of "TRUMP'S FAULT!!!" The real issue is in his policies, which will make it difficult to hit even 2%. Such as:
• Anti-immigrant and xenophobic sentiment and pronouncements (e.g. tourism by foreign nationals is already getting hurt; immigration, yes immigration, increases US GDP; our trading partners are less likely to buy US goods when we insult them)
• Policies that exacerbate income inequality
• No policies that help people dislocated by automation
• No serious policies to help low-wage or less educated employees, let alone deal with the opium crisis (which corrodes some of the communities in which these displaced and discouraged workers live)
• Potentially reducing safety nets and benefits, where all that spending goes into the economy, in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy and military spending (both of which have abysmally low multiplier effects) -- this includes numerous gut-punches to rural communities, mostly in cutting benefits and assistance to states (including Medicaid)
• Setting the stage for a repeat of the 2007 financial crisis, by eliminating regulations (particularly those on financial institutions)
And of course, another serious issue is that the Trump administration is basically lying out its ass by claiming that cutting taxes for the wealthy, and regulations on business, will boost growth to 3%. And while Trump may be a megalomaniacal moron who would fail Macroeconomics 101, Mnuchin is not... and really ought to know better.
I.e. it's the lies that are almost as bad as the policies.
Almost.