Trump Claims Credit for the economy. Not so fast, says Obama.

Former Obama advisers note that their boss inherited an economy widely regarded as the worst in generations and took enormous political risks by making unpopular decisions to overthrow him, while Mr. Trump inherited a growing economy.

"A jester could have kept the recovery going," said Jen Psaki, who was Obama's director of communications at the White House, "and in fact, we've had some."

Christina D. Romer, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, who headed Obama's council of advisors, said the former president "was basically right to claim much of the credit for the current health of the country. 'economy".

"That said," she added, "I suspect that some of the current growth is driven by Trump's tax cuts." She said the tax cut The difference, she said, was that Obama's stimulus package had been taken when the economy needed it, while tax cuts Mr. Trump's were not needed in an already growing economy.

But Kudlow pointed out that while growth was stronger in 2014, it had slowed down when Obama stepped down. "President Obama has really missed an anti-business attitude," he said. He added that business investment had increased since Trump came to power, encouraging spending in new factories and creating new businesses that would continue to bear fruit.

One of the ways that even former Obama advisers say Mr. Trump did better than his predecessor was to rebuild the economy. When Mr. Obama has always been measured in his descriptions of recovery for fear of being accused of exaggerating his case or ignoring the very real pain that many still feel, Mr. Trump does not care about warnings or subtility.

His sales skills may explain why the consumer confidence index has risen sharply since his election. According to Gallup, 54% of Americans said the economic situation was good or excellent last month, compared to 25% in April 2016. When Obama took over, it was only 7%.

"There is a link between taxes, regulation, trust, business investment and wages," said Kudlow. "It changed people's thinking."