JOSH BOAK and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump falsely claimed he's pulled off "an economic turnaround of historic proportions."

Speaking at the White House Friday after the government reported that the economy grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter, Trump declared that the gains were sustainable and would only accelerate. Few economists outside the administration agree with this claim.

His remarks followed events Thursday in Iowa and Illinois, where Trump falsely repeated a claim that the U.S. economy is the best "we've ever had" and incorrectly asserted that Canada's trade market is "totally closed."

A look at the claims:

TRUMP: "We've accomplished an economic turnaround of historic proportions." — remarks Friday at the White House.

THE FACTS: Trump didn't inherit a fixer-upper economy.

The U.S. economy just entered its 10th year of growth, a recovery that began under President Barack Obama, who inherited the Great Recession. The data show that the falling unemployment rate and gains in home values reflect the duration of the recovery, rather than any major changes made since 2017 by the Trump administration.

While Trump praised the 4.1 percent annual growth rate in the second quarter, it exceeded that level four times during the Obama presidency. But quarterly figures are volatile and strength in one quarter can be reversed in the next. While Obama never achieved the 3 percent annual growth that Trump hopes to see, he came close. The economy grew 2.9 percent in 2015.

The economy faces two significant structural d**gs that could keep growth closer to 2 percent than 3 percent: an aging population, which means fewer people are working and more are retired, and weak productivity growth, which means that those who are working aren't increasing their output as quickly as in the past.

Both of those factors are largely beyond Trump's control.

TRUMP: "One of the biggest wins in the report, and it is, indeed a big one, is that the trade deficit — very dear to my heart because we've been ripped off by the world — has dropped."

THE FACTS: Trump is correct that a lower trade deficit helped growth in the April-June quarter, but it's not necessarily for a positive reason.

The president has been floating plans to slap import taxes on hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign goods, which has led to the risk of retaliatory tariffs by foreign companies on U.S. goods.

This threat of an escalating trade war has led many companies to increase their levels of trade before any tariffs hit, causing the temporary boost in exports being celebrated by Trump.

Richard Moody, chief economist at Regions Financial, said the result is that the gains from trade in the second quarter will not be repeated.

TRUMP: "We're having the best economy we've ever had in the history of our country." — remarks in Granite City, Illinois.

THE FACTS: Even allowing for Trump's tendency to exaggerate, this overstates things.

The unemployment rate is near a 40-year low and growth is solid, but by many measures the current economy trails other periods in U.S. history. Average hourly pay, before adjusting for inflation, is rising at about a 2.5 percent annual rate, below the 4 percent level reached in the late 1990s when the unemployment rate was as low as it is now.

Pay was growing even faster in the late 1960s, when the jobless rate remained below 4 percent for nearly four years. And economic growth topped 4 percent for three full years from 1998 through 2000, an annual rate it hasn't touched since.

TRUMP: "The Canadians, you have a totally closed market ... they have a 375 percent tax on dairy products, other than that it's wonderful to deal. And we have a very big deficit with Canada, a trade deficit." — remarks in Peosta, Iowa.

THE FACTS: No, it's not totally closed. Because of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada's market is almost totally open to the United States. Each country has a few products that are still largely protected, such as dairy in Canada and sugar in the United States.

Trump also repeated his claim that the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada, but that is true only in goods. When services are included, such as insurance, tourism, and engineering, the U.S. had a $2.8 billion surplus with Canada last year.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Peosta, Iowa, and Granite City, Ill., and Hope Yen, Darlene Superville and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Bob, Bob, Bob, Presidents rack up big Protective Service costs every time they take a piss in a public rest room. Everything that a President does is expensive. You can't separate out golf and say that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for that. Apparently you were OK with Obama vacationing in Hawaii. Each trip to Hawaii cost taxpayers at least $4 million. The most expensive was $17 million. Each time, they rented an entire hotel, and took around 32 vehicles with them, including boats, planes, cars, and helicopters.

Bad, I realize that you h**e Trump for no apparent reason. But your rants are nauseating.

===================
Democrat drug addicts, free loaders, dumb lazy and mostly stupid, drug dealers won't get ahead. Their brains are so loaded with poor me, handouts,
and h**e those who work hard and got ahead.

But the brains of the democrats / liberals are mostly poor me parasites, with two inches artificial finger nails, hair straightened and colored red or purple, paid for by the monthly SSI they receive from the taxpayers.

The have free food, free housing, free medical care, free education but they don't study except Black studies, and Hispanics studies that could not land them gainful jobs. Then they complain of discrimination.

Most of them are very FAT, could hardly walk, but their groceries are loaded with fattening meat, paid for by the taxpayers. Then they complain. They allow their kids to get pregnant and have a******ns at PP paid for by taxpayers.

These are the democrats/liberals/socialists population.
LAZY, DUMB PARASITES! There are tens of millions of them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/07/27/have-u-s-taxpayers-spent-72-million-on-trumps-golf-outings/?utm_term=.de247e1eb2a8

Glenn Kessler
July 27 at 3:00 AM
Email the author

“Trump has spent 123 days golfing, or 1/5 of his term, at a cost to taxpayers of $72,181,957 – and still hasn’t visited troops in a war zone.”
— V**eVets, in a tweet, July 23, 2018
As a candidate, President Trump was heavily critical of Barack Obama’s golf habit and once told an audience that “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf.” So obviously that makes his own golf habit fair game for scrutiny.
But our eyebrows went up when we saw this tweet by a liberal-leaning veterans group — retweeted or liked by more than 50,000 people — because it offered such a precise number, to the dollar: $72,181,957. We often warn readers about false precision and decided to examine how this was calculated

Even Ron Pearlman has the orange con man beat..

Pearlman won an oscer,, he is fine actor.. trump could do nothing but play a parody of himself on his self financed tv show..

Tell me, which accomplishments ARE trumps?? Go ahead, I keep being told he has unending accomplishments. more then anyone ever...

But no one can name any.. Only removal of EPA rules and consumer protections. gift to the very rich and himself..

Are these the things you are so proud of him for???

We ain't losing jobs, we're gaining them. The 'free press' is a joke. Trump attacks only f**e news. The justice department has become rotten at the top. We have radicals staging the president's assassination, holding up his bloody head, blowing up the White House, etc. B****s and Latinos face historic employment. Let's cut to the chase...NONE of what you say is true. I don't attack you, my friend, you have the right to your own opinion, but I do attack your ideology. When you make statements about your beliefs, you should be able to quote supporting facts. Where are your supporting facts. Did you get them from MSM? Who has been proven over and over again to be not only biased, but outright liars?
Yes, we are divided for sure, but it is the liberals (Democrats) who have detached themselves from the backbone of America. You never cease to attack conservatives and yet you are wounded because we return the favor.
Feeling great yet? I do!

2bitap, Congratulations, you have gotten this fiction from the two most absurd sources around, u-tube and Fox news. u-tube doesn't require any proof of what is posted there, and Fox news is considered a mouthpiece of the Republican Party whose only goal is to make sure that the Trump cult stays in power.What did Paul Simon say in his song, The Boxer, A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
This is true of the Trump cult. They believe that they are patriots, but freely support the worst president in American history and a man that has committed treasonous acts.