If you think Trump has already brought new investments for a total of half of all GDP

Washington-to listen to Donald Trump, in the not four months since he recovered the presidency, has brought about $ 14 billion in a new investment to the country, with $ 4 billion of his newly completed trip to the Arab Peninsula alone.

“The works and money that arrive in our country, there has never been something similar. You will see that companies are companies based in the United States,” Trump told reporters when Air Force One left the United Arab Emirates on Friday, attributing all the new investments to their choice. “They are doing a job that would not have been available for them, except for November 5.”

The figure seems incredible, since the entire Gross Domestic Product of the Nation is only $ 29 billion, and economists say there is a reason for that. It is incredible because it is not remotely true.

“No,” said the economist at Michigan University, Justin Wolfers, when asked if Trump’s claims are possibly correct. “That is the answer.”

The White House Press Office did not respond to News themezone’s request from a complete list of investments for a total of the $ 14 billion, not one for the list of those who represent $ 8 billion when Trump affirmed that amount only two weeks ago.

Trump, however, has boasted for months that his return to office has brought many billions of investments that otherwise would not have happened.

“Before the end of my first complete business day in Washington, in the White House, we have already secured almost $ 3 billion of new investments in the United States,” he said on January 21, the day after his inauguration.

Waleed Zein/Anadolu through Getty Images

For April 2, the day he announced his “day of release” tariffs that financial markets sent to agitation, that total had doubled. “Until now, it seems that we are going to have about $ 6 billion of investments,” he said.

The number continued to rise in recent weeks to $ 8 billion, $ 9 billion and finally $ 10 billion in the days before it was on their first extended foreign trip. “Other administrations have not had $ 1 billion for a period of four years, even for a period of eight years. We have more than $ 10 billion committed in one way or another for two months,” he said Monday.

In a photographic opportunity with business leaders in Qatar on Thursday, Trump boasted of the total that will have brought from that country, Saudi Arabia and the EAU in the course of the week: “It could be a total of $ 3.5 billion, $ 4 billion, only in these four or five days.”

“That is crazy and without foundation,” said Jason Furman, a main economic advisor to Obama’s White House and now Economics professor at Harvard University. “I doubt that press releases even join. But, independently, press releases are a terrible way of determining the investment or impact of their policies in it.”

The Trump White House website, in fact, does not show a number about $ 14 billion or even $ 10 billion.

The “Trump effect” page of the website that tracks the “important investment ads” that were “possible for the leadership of President Trump” lists the figures pages, including $ 1.2 billion of Qatar, $ 500 billion of Apple and $ 11 billion Gilead Sciences are clear to $ 6 million LGM Pharma. When they totally reach $ 3,928,720,700,000. Even if the $ 200 billion in a new investment claimed by the visit of Emirates is added to that, it still amounts to only $ 4.1 billion, approximately $ 10 billion below Trump’s statements.

“I have a doctorate in economics and I can tell him that $ 4.1 billion is less than $ 14 billion,” Wolfers said. “If you want, I can consult with two more doctorates in economics at home right now to see if I’m right.”

He said that even the enumerated investments do not mean that Trump had anything to do with them or even that they are precise.

“Trump has claimed an investment agreement of $ 1.2 billion of Qatar. Qatar annual GDP is a little less than $ 250 billion per year. Therefore, an investment that would require every dollar each Qatar in the next five years,” Wolfers said.

That Trump exaggerates, or simply invented things, is not a surprise. He has been famous imprudent with the truth for his whole adult life, sometimes because he does not know what is correct and does not care, and other times because he knows the truth and lies consciously anyway.

Wolfers said Trump also has the advantage that most people do not understand completely large numbers, which makes them easy to confuse them with great statements.

“The problem is that the word millions, one billion and billion sound similar,” he said. “So, my realistic answer is that he is a known liar … I can also show him that he is a lazy liar. So, if his investment announcement is full of lazy lies, what part of this should we infer is true?”