Trump expected to tout record economic expansion in UN General Assembly speech
President Trump, during his speech before world leaders on Tuesday, is expected to touch on the record-long economic expansion underway in the U.S., even as the global economic outlook continues to darken.
Trump, who is scheduled to deliver his third address before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday morning, told reporters that he plans to discuss a series of topics ranging from the U.S. economy to Iran, which he blamed for an attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry earlier this month.
“We’ll be talking about various things that we’re doing. And we’re having tremendous success. We’re also going to be talking about the economy,” Trump said. “As you know ... our economy is doing fantastically well.”
Despite some worrisome economic developments, including the inversion of the spread between two-year and 10-year Treasury yields, two rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and moderate, but slowing, growth in the U.S., unemployment remains at 3.7 percent — near a five-decade low — and job growth has continued to chug along at a healthy pace.
Plus, although U.S. manufacturing contracted for the first time in three years at the beginning of September, new data revealed this week the sector rebounded, with activity growth hitting a five-month high, according to the U.S. manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index.
“Others were down, and we’re up,” Trump said. “And we continue to go in the right direction. We’re getting numbers that we never anticipated having. And we’re doing very well. Other parts of the world are not doing nearly as well.”
“But there are a lot of things to talk about,” Trump added. “We have a lot of really great relationships, and we have some relationships that are — let’s call it ‘in formation.’ We’re being nice.”
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As a candidate, Trump dismissed the intergovernmental body as weak and incompetent, though he’s since softened his tone. In his first speech before world leaders in 2017, Trump emphasized his “America first” foreign policy stance in a defiant performance. One year later, in a slightly more subdued speech, Trump elicited laughter from world leaders when he said his administration "has accomplished more than almost any other administration in the history of our country."