CPAC 2021: Here are the lies Donald Trump told
b'CPAC 2021: Here are the lies Donald Trump told Donald Trump clung to his core election falsehoods in his first post-presidential speech, wrongly blamed wind power for the catastrophic power failures in Texas and revived a variety of the baseless claims that saturated his time in office, on immigration, the economy and more.\\n\\nA look at Trump\\u2019s remarks Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference:\\n\\nTRUMP: \\u201cWe built the strongest economy in the history of the world.\\u201d\\n\\nTHE FACTS: No, the numbers show it wasn\\u2019t the greatest in U.S. history, much less in the history of the world. He was actually the first president since Herbert Hoover in the Depression to leave office with fewer jobs than when he started.\\n\\nThe U.S. did have the most jobs on record before the pandemic, but population growth explains part of that. The 3.5% unemployment rate before the pandemic-induced recession was at a half-century low, but the percentage of people working or searching for jobs was still below a 2000 peak. TRUMP: \\u201cWe built the strongest economy in the history of the world.\\u201d\\n\\nTHE FACTS: No, the numbers show it wasn\\u2019t the greatest in U.S. history, much less in the history of the world. He was actually the first president since Herbert Hoover in the Depression to leave office with fewer jobs than when he started.\\n\\nThe U.S. did have the most jobs on record before the pandemic, but population growth explains part of that. The 3.5% unemployment rate before the pandemic-induced recession was at a half-century low, but the percentage of people working or searching for jobs was still below a 2000 peak.\\n\\nNobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer looked at Trump\\u2019s economic growth record. Growth under Trump averaged 2.48% annually before the pandemic, only slightly better than the 2.41% gains achieved during Barack Obama\\u2019s second term. By contrast, the economic expansion that began in 1982 during Ronald Reagan\\u2019s presidency averaged 4.2% a year.\\n\\nNobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer looked at Trump\\u2019s economic growth record. Growth under Trump averaged 2.48% annually before the pandemic, only slightly better than the 2.41% gains achieved during Barack Obama\\u2019s second term. By contrast, the economic expansion that began in 1982 during Ronald Reagan\\u2019s presidency averaged 4.2% a year.\\n\\nWIND POWER\\n\\nTRUMP, assailing Democrats on energy policy: \\u201cThe windmill calamity that we\\u2019re witnessing in Texas ... it\\u2019s so sad when you look at it. That will just be the start.\\u201d'