McEnany: Trump economy will return in May in 'strong way’

FPI / April 27, 2020

May will be a key month for economic recovery as states begin to emerge from government-imposed coronavirus lockdown, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Saturday.

There is a "lot of pent up demand in this country" with "a lot of people at home who are ready to get out there and fuel [the U.S.] economy," McEnany said in an interview on "Fox & Friends Weekend".

"You have had 16 states who have put out re-opening plans. 34 states say those plans are forthcoming. And, this is made possible because when you look across the country — as of Thursday — in 46 states we saw a decline in symptoms of COVID-like illness," McEnany said.

"We believe this economy will come back and come back in a very strong way because we have the man at the helm, President Trump, who ushered in the greatest economy in modern history," McEnany said.

Nationwide, Americans are protesting what they see as unreasonable "stay-at-home" orders put in place by their governors.

Last week, another 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment, according to the Labor Department. That brought job losses since the outbreak triggered widespread "stay-at-home" measures to more than 26 million.

"The impact has completely erased the entirety of the 22.78 million labor market gains since the Great Recession more than a decade ago," Fox News noted.

"With a labor force that totals about 162 million people, the claims figures suggest the unemployment rate is about 16 percent, or roughly one in six Americans — significantly higher than the 10 percent peak seen during the 2008 financial crisis. The previous one-week high for jobless claims was 695,800 in 1982," Fox News reported.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed legislation providing $484 billion to replenish the CARES Act, a small business lending program.

The measure included an additional $310 billion in funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). $60 billion of the funding is reserved for community banks and small lenders, $75 billion for hospitals, $25 billion to support testing efforts, and $60 billion for emergency disaster loans and grants.

"The CARES Act was a great stopgap measure as we waited and American workers needed those direct payments," McEnany said. "Again, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer delayed that for a week. You know, she's out doing late-night TV in front of her ice cream freezer, but President Trump has really motivated both parties to get back to work. The Democrat Party especially."

White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow also predicted May will be a "transition month" across America.

"The key point is we've laid out a pathway, [a] guideline for all the state governors across the country who will then begin to re-open the economy. It'll be done in phases. May will be a transition month. But this thing will get us back on track. I mean, the economy look, in the last four weeks, these numbers are very painful because they have hardship written all over them."

Free Press International