When South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham took to Twitter to brag about U.S. President Donald Trump’s job creation in the first 21 months of his presidential term, he probably wasn’t expecting it to backfire quite so drastically.
As the Huffington Post reported, the Twittersphere had plenty of statistics and graphs to throw back at Graham, while others simply called him “dude” and offered up sarcasm instead.
Graham took to the social media site to criticize former President Barack Obama for his job creation numbers, praising Trump by comparison as he wrote, “If @BarackObama’s jobs numbers were anywhere close to what we’re talking about with President @realDonaldTrump……the media would stop the Earth from rotating to make sure everybody heard about it!”
Unfortunately for Graham, it seems he forgot to fact-checking his outlandish statement before taking to Twitter, and other users on the social media site were quick to point out his error.
In the final 21 months that Obama was in office, his administration created an additional 4.47 million jobs. Following that, in the first 21 months of Trump’s presidency, only 4.05 million jobs were created, meaning Obama’s job number bettered Trump’s by nearly half a million.
Plenty of people were angry at the outright lie by Graham, with one even saying the senator lacks all credibility and integrity.
https://twitter.com/LittmanTanya/status/1059540729687506944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1059540729687506944&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fentry%2Flindsey-graham-job-numbers-trump-obama_us_5be0bd87e4b09d43e321f48e
I don’t understand the ability or lack of ability to just look at the numbers or the facts!!!! You lack any credibility or integrity dude… (possibly at one time a sir but not any longer)
— MMHILA (@MHilarides) November 5, 2018
Job growth during last 21 months of Obama admin > job growth during first 21 months of Trump admin. Even @FoxNews admitted this today.
— Katherine (@kseppi) November 5, 2018
Others posted funny GIFs and memes in response.
— Stine A. Hansen (@StineAHansen2) November 5, 2018
Others provided cold, hard facts and numbers to rebuff Graham’s claims.
Umm @LindseyGrahamSC : pic.twitter.com/5IDXHnuavU
— DJ_PsychGuy ?? (@DJ_PsychGuy) November 5, 2018
— wil kemp (@kemp_wil) November 5, 2018
— Jewel By The Sea ?? (@NoTrumpJewel) November 5, 2018
I’m starting to believe you failed 1st grade math.
The 10 months leading up to the last midterm election: 2,447,000 jobs. The 10 months leading up to the current election: 2,125,000 jobs.
Source: Dept. of Labor pic.twitter.com/LCpWLNqnuO
— Mike Flacy (@mikeflacy) November 5, 2018
Many users were angry that Graham was coming up with such blatant lies in the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, feeling that the senator was trying to swing votes in Republicans’ favor.
Just last week, Trump himself also spouted numbers while speaking at the White House, saying that “Nobody has ever been president that has the greatest economy in the history of our country. This is the greatest economy in the history of our country,” per CNBC . He also stated that “there are more people working than at any time in the history of our country.” While this is true, the population has grown significantly, which requires a greater number of people to be working. Despite this, job creation has actually slowed slightly under the Trump administration, given the projection of job creation under Obama.
And as the Washington Post points out, the economy “added more jobs in every year of Obama’s second term than it did in Trump’s first year.”
