(The Hill) — Billionaire investor and television personality Mark Cuban defended the state of the economy under President Biden and bashed former President Trump on Friday, arguing that Trump squandered the strong economy he received from former President Obama.
After highlighting a graph on the social platform X showing 12 straight months of positive real wage growth in the U.S., Cuban responded to a user who appeared unimpressed by the numbers.
“Imagine looking at this graphic and not realizing that your guy underperformed the Obama economy he inherited and gave away all the wage growth trends in place when he took office,” Cuban said of Trump.
The graph showed the year-over-year change in real average hourly earnings stretching back before 2010, appearing to cover much of the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations.
The user argued that Cuban was ignoring the absence of any negative wage growth under Trump.
“You can’t brag about Biden’s ‘wage growth’ because the line is positive and then ignore the lack of negative wage growth in the Trump administration,” they said.
Prior to the 12 straight months of positive real wage growth, meaning wages outpaced inflation, Biden presided over 25 consecutive months of negative real wage growth, according to the graph.
The “Shark Tank” star responded, arguing that Obama and Biden both inherited economic crises and were able reverse negative wage growth, while Trump presided over diminishing wage growth.
“I just showed the graphic. Without commentary,” Cuban said. “The facts are that Obama and Biden inherited the Great Recession and Covid, both generational issues, and turned the economy positive over time.”
“The guy between them inherited a booming economy and in terms of wage growth, diminished it,” he added. “Is that what the numbers say to you?”
Biden has struggled to shift Americans’ largely negative views on the economy as he prepares to face off against Trump once again in November.
Nearly 3 in 5 Americans believe the U.S. is in a recession, even though experts say there hasn’t been one since 2020, according to a Harris poll released earlier this week.
While inflation rose rapidly in 2021 and 2022, peaking at a 40-year high of 9.1 percent, it has eased significantly since. As of April, consumer prices were up just 3.4 percent year over year.
Despite the Federal Reserve’s repeated interest rate hikes to tamp down on inflation, the labor market has also remained surprisingly strong, repeatedly blowing past expectations while unemployment has remained below 4 percent for the longest stretch in 50 years.
