Thread by @ddale8

Here's a quick thread on just one of many examples of how the White House is twisting statistics to make a rosy case for Trump’s tariffs.

President Trump, while touting his tariffs, claimed in his Davos speech last month, “Factory construction is up by 41%.” But The Wall Street Journal and others noted that spending on factory construction is actually *down* this year compared to last year, and has fallen steadily month after month: wsj.com/livecoverage/s…

Here’s the federal data. It shows spending on manufacturing construction rising in 2021 under Biden, spiking in 2022 and 2023 under Biden, leveling off under Biden in 2024, and then falling month after month under Trump in 2025. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TLMFGCO…

So...what’s the deal? Trump revealed the answer in the op-ed under his name last week in the Journal, writing: “Factory construction is up by 42% since 2022.” 2022!

By comparing 2025 numbers to *2022* numbers, Trump is effectively crediting his 2025 tariffs/2025 economic agenda for the spike in factory construction spending under Biden in 2023…even as that factory construction spending falls month after month in 2025.

“It’s interesting he would take credit for something that transpired during the Biden administration,” Anirban Basu, chief economist for construction industry group Associated Builders and Contractors, told me yesterday. Basu said that there was a boom in factory construction after Biden's Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act – but the data clearly shows “that boom ends in 2025.” He said the tariffs are a major reason why. /end