Economy In Crisis: RNC Chaos Presidency Fact Sheet

August 25, 2020

Trump inherited a strong economy from the Obama-Biden administration, and just like everything he’s inherited, Trump squandered it. His mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis has cost millions Americans their jobs, forced small businesses to close, and wrecked our economy.

  • The economy has lost more than 6 million jobs under Trump and tens of millions of Americans are out of work. It didn’t have to be this bad, but it can get worse.
  • More than 110,00 small businesses have closed for good while the Trump administration sent hundreds of millions in aid to large and foreign-owned corporations.
  • While tens of millions of families may be unable to pay rent, Trump cut aid to unemployed workers and pond.
  • Joe Biden and Kamala Harris support expanded unemployment insurance for millions of Americans, have a plan to prevent evictions, and know how to build our economy back better.

UNPRECEDENTED UNEMPLOYMENT: Millions of Americans are still unemployed. Most of the jobs lost have not yet come back, and many are gone for good.

  • Over 16 million Americans are unemployed—more than one in ten workers. 
  • The economy has regained less than half of the jobs lost during the pandemic. Under Trump, the economy lost more than six million jobs in total, including 257,000 factory jobs.
  • The labor market recovery slowed dramatically last month as layoffs spiked by more than 50 percent amid the coronavirus surge that resulted from Trump’s failure to control the virus. Nearly one-third of recalled workers were laid off a second time.

SMALL BUSINESSES SHUTTERING: Trump failed to provide badly needed assistance to small businesses.

  • Trump botched the rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program and failed to provide guidance, delaying badly needed assistance for small businesses. And his rules for the program prevented many small firms and minority-owned businesses from getting any help at all.
  • As a result, more than 110,000 small businesses have shuttered for good—and Black and Hispanic business owners have been hit disproportionately hard.
  • As Trump fails to get the coronavirus under control, small business optimism fell last month and expectations for future sales have plummeted.

ECONOMY IN RECESSION: Our economy is in a recession, and Trump is bailing out rich corporations while leaving everyone else behind.

WORKING FAMILIES SUFFER: In Trump’s economy, working families are hurting as bad as ever.

  • Trump slashed enhanced unemployment benefits in half for tens of millions of Americans, and cut benefits to zero for more than a million low-wage workers.
  • Trump left small farmers out of coronavirus relief funding as farm bankruptcies have continued to spike over the past year.