Washington Post: Trump asked if U.S. was better off in his last year. In many ways, the answer is no.
A look at the third week of March 2020 reveals a nation that was plunging into a pandemic, and a leader exhibiting the erratic characteristics that his supporters love and his detractors revile
By ASHLEY PARKER and HANNAH KNOWLES
Donald Trump posed an all-but-shouted query on his social media platform last week, echoing a talking point that has recently become popular in Republican circles: “ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO?”
The clear implication from Trump and his allies is that the country was thriving in 2020 when he was president in a way that it is not now under President Biden. But the reality is far more complicated.
Four years ago last week, the stock market was collapsing — hitting its worst week since the Great Recession of 2008 — as the country spiraled into a years-long pandemic that claimed more than 1 million American lives, cratered the economy, upended daily life and, arguably, helpedcost Trump a second term in the White House.