A frequent talking point for President Trump and Republicans is that during President Obama’s term, the U.S. economy never grew three precent or better in a year. “Obama is the first president in modern history not to have a single year of three percent growth,” Mr. Trump said at a 2016 campaign rally in Manchester, N.H.
Depending on whether you view a year as any 12-month period or just the January to January calendar year, you can arrive at different conclusions. Fact-checkers have pointed out that there were two 12-month periods in which the economy grew 3% during Mr. Obama’s term. The economy grew 3.4% between the third quarters of 2009 and 2010 and 3.3% between the first quarters of 2014 and of 2015. Still, on a calendar year basis Mr. Trump’s statement is true. There was no calendar year during Mr. Obama’s term in which GDP growth exceeded 3%.
Fact-checkers have rated Mr. Trump’s claim as “mostly true” and some have called his statement misleading for failing to note 12-month periods of three percent growth under Obama. However, because Mr. Trump was clearly talking about calendar year growth, we judge Mr. Trump’s claim as accurate without need for qualification.