As the self-anointed job creator in chief, Donald Trump rarely misses a chance to use the presidential podium or his alternative podium, Twitter, to take credit for employment being created or retained in America
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But a thorough review of Mr. Trump’s celebrations reveals that virtually none of the pronouncements involved jobs generated or preserved by the new president’s actions. Indeed, they mostly consisted of a rehash of old decisions — some with origins dating back as many as six years — or plans made independently by companies for their own business reasons.
Thus companies from General Motors to Exxon Mobil have been congratulated by Mr. Trump for what they were already doing.
In fact, there’s not a single new job that the president can clearly take responsibility for creating and only one case of jobs being retained because of his efforts, the 800 positions that Carrier was persuaded shortly after Mr. Trump’s election not to send to Mexico.
Even those few jobs came at a stiff price — $7 million of incentives from the state of Indiana, where Vice President-elect Mike Pence was still governor.
Below are instances that my associate Sundas Hashmi and I found of Mr. Trump’s claiming credit for creating jobs, matched with the reality.
