On Friday afternoon, Donald Trump declared a national emergency to secure funding for his border wall. His attempt to bypass Congress was met with disdain from Democrats, who vowed to use ‘every remedy available’ to block him. The President lied several times during the course of his announcement, such as when he claimed drugs and human trafficking occurs at areas where there is no border wall. It is known that the majority of these incidents actually occur at the legal point of entry.
When Jim Acosta asked Trump why he decided to declare a national emergency at a time when statistics show undocumented immigration has dropped to its lowest level in ten years, Trump said “You don’t really believe that stat do you?” despite the fact that the statistics come from his own government. When asked which statistics he had seen to contradict those quoted by his own government, Trump said “I use many stats.” Welcome to 2019.
Manufacturing output surprisingly fell by 0.9% in January, which was much worse than the 0.1% growth the markets had expected. Industrial output also decline by 0.6% last month when, again, an increase of 0.1% had been expected. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment increased to 95.5 in February from 91.2 in January.
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