President Donald Trump has recently turned to a new economic indicator in his push to convince Americans that his policies are boosting the economy: the number of people receiving federal food benefits.
“In nine months, we’ve lifted over 600,000 Americans off food stamps,” he said Tuesday at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington.
A few days earlier, Trump cited the figure at the McDonald’s Impact Summit, saying, “It’s really because we really have a strong economy.” And last month, he also highlighted the number at a gathering of business executives in South Korea.
But a deeper dive into the data paints a more complex picture. Even though fewer people are receiving federal food assistance, lower-wage workers continue to face a slowing job market and persistent inflation cutting into their wage growth, researchers and economists said. At the same time, food banks…
