What did Donald Trump do today?

He lied about the economy.

Speaking in Montana today, at his 17th daily trip away from the White House to a campaign rally in the last month, Trump said this: 

It [the economy] heading down when I took over. They like to say, “Well, Obama helped.” He didn’t help. We were going down.

But in reality, the economy under President Obama was not "heading down," by the usual measures like unemployment...

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

...or the stock market...

Dow Jones Industrial Average

...or the overall economic growth rate.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

Presidents can't really directly affect the overall economy much (except to harm it), but realistically the best Trump can claim is that he has kept the Obama recovery going.

That said, Trump can claim that he has improved the personal economic outlook of some Americans more than President Obama did...


...but that's probably not a conversation Trump wants to have three days before an election.

Who cares?

• It's a problem if the president has to lie in order to make himself look competent.

• It's also a problem if the president doesn't know whether he's lying or not when he tries to make himself look competent.