At a press statement on Friday, President Donald Trump bragged that the United States would soon have “the strongest economy in the world” — only to be challenged by PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor when the journalist cited actual economic figures.
The press conference came at a time when the U.S. is being rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and high unemployment as well as large protests in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Despite all that, Trump’s tone was strident rather than empathetic as he bragged, “What’s happened to our country, and what you now see…. is the greatest thing that can happen for race relations, for the African-American community, for the Asian-American, for the Hispanic-American community, for women, for everything. Because our economy is so strong…. We’re going to have the strongest economy in the world. We’re almost there now.”
Then came some fact-checking. PBS’ Yamiche Alcindor asserted asked: “How would a better economy have protected George Floyd?” Then she added: “Black unemployment went up by 0.1%, Asian-American unemployment went up by 0.5%. How is that a victory?” Continue reading.