Trump claims his trade policies are helping our economy and hurting China, but the most recent data tells a different story.

This morning, Trump again falsely claimed his erratic trade policies with China are helping our economy.

Trump: “U.S. Markets are up as much as 21% since the announcement of Tariffs on 3/1/2018 – and the U.S. is taking in massive amounts of money (and giving some to our farmers, who have been targeted by China)!”

Trump: “We have now the greatest economy that we’ve ever had. We’ve increased by $20 trillion. China has gone down probably by $30 trillion or $35 trillion.”

The data tells a different story. Our manufacturing sector contracted in November for the fourth straight month.

CNBC: “Manufacturing activity continued to lag in November amid a lag in inventories and new orders, according to the latest ISM Manufacturing reading released Monday. The reading came in at 48.1 vs. an expectation of 49.4 and the previous month’s reading of 48.3. Though the ISM reading is usually reported as a simple number, it actually denotes the percentage of manufacturers planning to expand operations. A reading below 50 represents contraction.”

Construction spending on structures like factories plunged again in October.

Reuters: “Spending on private nonresidential structures, which includes manufacturing and power plants, plunged 1.2% in October to the lowest level since January 2018. Investment in private nonresidential structures fell 1.0% in September. Outlays on private nonresidential structures have been depressed by a manufacturing downturn due to trade tensions and cheaper energy products.=.”

Meanwhile, Chinese factories expanded in November at their fastest pace in almost three years.

Reuters: “China’s factory activity unexpectedly expanded at the quickest pace in almost three years in November, with solid increases in output and new orders, a private business survey showed on Monday.”