EDITORIAL: Economy showing signs of life under President Donald Trump

Donald Trump has faced constant scorn and ridicule over the first eight months of his presidency, some of it deserved. But as the economy starts to thrive after years of wheezing and sputtering, his critics may soon have one less thing to complain about.

On Wednesday, the government announced that the gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 3 percent during the second quarter. That’s the best quarterly increase in two years. Higher growth rates help attack government budget deficits and are associated with less poverty, a higher standard of living and increased prosperity.

At the same time, the Commerce Department revealed Thursday that consumer spending rose 0.3 percent in July, the best showing since April. That’s an indicator that the second-quarter growth rate can be sustained.

“Consumer spending looks rock solid,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York, told The Associated Press. “The consumer continues to do the heavy lifting when it comes to economic growth as corporations hold back investment plans until they see what tax reform proposals make it through Congress.”

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that other trends show encouraging signs, “including a global pickup in growth supporting exports, rising employment supporting household income and spending, and robust corporate profits and confidence, supporting investments.”

This in sharp contrast to the past eight years. The quarterly GDP growth rate hit 3 percent just eight times under Barack Obama, while falling below 2 percent 16 times. In five quarters on the former president’s watch, the nation experienced negative growth. Some of that, of course, can be attributed to the Great Recession and its aftermath. But the Obama recovery remains the feeblest since the Great Depression eight decades ago.

Pundits and some economists lambasted Mr. Trump for basing his federal budget on a 3 percent growth rate, calling the assumption wildly optimistic. We’ll see. But there can be little doubt that the administration’s efforts to roll back the regulatory state while pushing tax reform has at this point helped remove the pall of economic pessimism that for too long dominated in corporate corner offices, among small-business owners and across a wide swath of working-class America.