Sarah Sanders made a bizarre claim about black employment under Trump compared to Obama as a defense against Omarosa's attacks
- White House press secretary Sarah Sanders pointed to the growth of black employment under President Donald Trump as a defense against former top White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman's claims that the president may have used a racial slur.
- Sanders claimed that Trump has created 700,000 jobs for black people in his first year and a half, while Obama only created 195,000 in eight years.
- But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 3 million more black people were employed at the end of Obama's presidency than when he was sworn in.
While rebuking claims made by former top White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman's tell-all book about President Donald Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made an astounding claim about black job growth during the president's tenure.
As part of Sanders' defense of the president during the press briefing on Tuesday, the White House press secretary made the eye-raising claim that Trump has already created more jobs for black people than his predecessor President Barack Obama did in two terms. From Sanders (emphasis ours):
"Just look at the economy alone, this president since he took office - in the year and a half that he's been here - has created 700,000 new jobs for African-Americans. That's 700,000 African-Americans that are working now that weren't working when this president took place. When President Obama left, after eight years in office - eight years in office - he had only created 195,000 jobs for African-Americans. President Trump, in his first year and a half, has already tripled what President Obama did in eight years."
The only problem is that Sanders' numbers for black job growth under Obama appear to be way off base.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of African-Americans employed increased by 2,955,000 between January 2009 - when Obama took office - and January 2017 - when Trump was sworn in as president. Since Trump took over, the number has increased another 708,000 according to the BLS.
So while Sanders's numbers for black employment under Trump were correct, the numbers for Obama were vastly under-counted.
Additionally, under Obama, the black unemployment rate fell from a high of 16.8% in March 2010, the depths of the recession, to 7.8% in January 2017. From Obama's inauguration to Trump inauguration, the black unemployment rate fell 4.9 percentage points from 12.7% to 7.8%. Since Trump took office, it has declined another 1.2 percentage points from 7.8% to 6.6%.
It also not immediately clear where Sanders's 195,000 number came from.
Through July 2010, a comparable point in Obama's first term to Trump's current position, black employment actually dropped 474,000 as the recession took its toll on the economy. Through the entirety of Obama's first term, black employment increased roughly 600,000.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.