President Trump said Thursday that his defeat by Joe Biden could mean a “1929 situation” for the economy — as Biden blamed Trump for mass job losses during the coronavirus pandemic.
The dueling campaign messages followed release of data showing the US economy added 4.8 million jobs in June, reducing unemployment to 11.1 percent, down from a peak of 14.7 percent in April.
Trump said he’s doing an “incredible job” to revive the economy, while his Democratic rival — speaking simultaneously — said Trump’s missteps were the reason for the economic downturn.
At the White House, Trump inspected US-made products before warning assembled businessmen that Democrats could unleash a Great Depression with new taxes and regulations.
“You’ll have a crash like you’ve never seen before if you put the wrong person in office. You’ll see things that you would not have believed are possible.”
If Democrats defeat him, “It will be a terrible, terrible sight. It might even be a 1929 situation,” Trump said, referring to the market plunge that preceded the Great Depression.
If he’s re-elected, Trump said, “You have a chance to have the greatest numbers in history, you’re almost there. We’re almost back to where we were from the standpoint of the stock market, think of that.”
But Biden, giving a speech by video feed, sought to dampen Trump’s victory lap on job numbers, saying the president was the reason tens of millions of people filed for unemployment benefits since March.
“Donald Trump has so badly bungled the response to coronavirus, and now has basically given up on responding at all,” the former vice president said, noting record-high figures for new US infections.
“Many more Americans — millions of them — would still have their job if Donald Trump had done his job,” Biden said. “Many of the jobs that have now come back should never have been lost in the first place. And for everyone whose job hasn’t come back, for everyone who doesn’t own stock, who can’t get the sweetheart loan through connections: Does this feel like a victory?”