President Donald Trump on Tuesday admitted to falsely claiming a few weeks ago that the unemployment rate among Black Americans had reached its lowest rate ever.
“I have to tell you, the fake news about two weeks ago got me on that one,” Trump said during a speech. “Because, two months ago, it was the lowest level ever recorded.”
“Then, about four weeks ago, it went slightly not as good … And I made a speech; I said, ‘African-American unemployment has reached the lowest levels ever recorded,'” he added. “And it really wasn’t. It was good, but it wasn’t. And they got me. They said it wasn’t so.”
Trump then claimed Black unemployment “went back down to the lowest levels ever recorded” last week.
The president’s admission comes a month after he took to Twitter to assume credit for the low unemployment among Black workers, reporting the numbers as record lows-despite a jump in Black unemployment in January, according to The Hill. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that Black unemployment increased to 7.7 percent last month after falling to 6.8 percent in December.
The December numbers were the lowest rates recorded since the records began in 1972 and were part of a downward trend in Black unemployment that started under President Barack Obama.
