Donald Trump urged Americans to “start looking” for new jobs if they were unhappy with their situation as he boasted of economic growth in tweets Thursday.
“Financial and jobs numbers are fantastic. There are plenty of new, high paying jobs available in our great and very vibrant economy,” Trump wrote. “If you are not happy where you are, start looking - but also remember, our economy is only getting better. Vote in Midterms!”
Trump’s latest comments echoed remarks he made last year, when he encouraged residents in upstate New York to leave their homes and find work in states like Wisconsin.
“I’m going to start explaining to people: when you have an area that just isn’t working like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you’ll have another area 500 miles away where you can’t get people, I’m going to explain, you can leave. It’s OK. Don’t worry about your house,” he said at the time.
Financial and jobs numbers are fantastic. There are plenty of new, high paying jobs available in our great and very vibrant economy. If you are not happy where you are, start looking - but also remember, our economy is only getting better. Vote in Midterms!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2018
The pitch also evokes the remarks of the British conservative Norman Tebbit, who as employment secretary in the 1980s famously encouraged the unemployed to get on their bikes and find jobs.
“I grew up in the 30s with our unemployed father. He did not riot. He got on his bike and he looked for work,” he said.
Trump, who is set to appear at a campaign-style rally in Las Vegas on Thursday night, fired off a series of tweets bragging about the economy and chiding Democrats for refusing to pay for the wall he wants to build along the southern border, which he once promised Mexico would pay for.
“I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms?” he said. “Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!”
In an earlier tweet Wednesday, Trump falsely claimed that before he took office, the economic recovery had been the slowest since the Great Depression.
“The recovery got started on Election Day 2016. It took Trump’s Tax Cuts and Regulation Cuts to get the economy booming. Before that it was the worst and slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression,” he said, quoting comments from a guest on Fox & Friends.
In fact, the recovery from the recession in 2001 was slower than the recovery from the most recent recession.
