How the United States is economically thriving under Trump

I would have never thought I would write this, but Trump could actually be succeeding at making America (economically) great again.

The night this man was elected, I was more than surprised. Like many of you reading this, I thought it was the end of the United States, peace, and of me wanting to study in the US. In relation with peace, even though Hillary Clinton wanted even more war with Middle Eastern countries, Trump still could get better by maybe trying to avoid a nuclear war with North Korea and gun control (a very nice concept that thrives in Europe).

Nevertheless, something not that surprising when you actually think about it is happening in the United States: The economy is growing fast, with a 3% growth according to Trump. In fact, let's look at some charts and see if the economy is doing as well as he says and try to explain this economic growth:

THE STOCK PERFORMANCE

This chart, taken from The Independent, puts forward as you have all noticed the impressive growth of the S&P 500, an index that measures how the top 500 US companies are performing. If you follow Trump on twitter (something quite fun to do), you have probably seen his tweets attributing this growth to the policies he has undertaken. Nevertheless, let's now look at this chart from The Washington post which compares the US stock performance (in green) with Japan's (yellow), the UK's (red) and Germany's (blue).

Globally, the stock performance is doing well. There is a general growing trend that is not specific to the United States and which therefore could have happened whether Trump had been elected or not.

UNEMPLOYMENT

Another major aspect of the economy is obviously unemployment. Trump has made it clear that unemployment is at a low 4.3%, something that had not happened since the early 2000's, and which will therefore probably make wages increase in the future (they have not yet and still are flat today). Here is a chart taken from Channel 4:

Trump has not been lying: Unemployment really is at 4.3% which will therefore boost the economy. Nevertheless, if you look at the big picture, the unemployment rate had been decreasing already under the previous presidency, which basically means that today's unemployment rate could only be a result of Obama' policies.

LASTLY, THE G.D.P

Probably the most important figure to measure a country's economic performance: the G.D.P. It has been one of Trump's most bragged number on twitter:

In fact, the GDP increased by 2.6% and not 3%, and even if you might think that does not make much of a difference, economists still would not round this number to it's nearest whole.

Now if we look at the GDP just before Trump's election, it also was around 2.6% (even slightly higher). The fact that the GDP is at 2.6% remains unclear, meaning that it was considered as a big win for Republicans since many economists said that a 2.6% GDP was impossible, but on the other hand many economists had already predicted a 2.6% GDP whether Trump would have been elected or not.

SO IS TRUMP ACTUALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF THIS

Once again this whole situation remains unclear, but one thing is sure: you cannot award Trump for this whole economic growth. He might have slightly helped it, but considering the fact that he has not been passing that many important reform bills, except for the tax reform bill, and that there is a general upwards trend in the World, it can be said that no, Trump is not responsible for this growth.