Donald Trump has claimed that the economic fallout following the coronavirus pandemic is "God testing" him to rebuild what he called "the greatest economy in the history of the world".
"What we have achieved together and what we're doing together is nothing short of an economic miracle and now we're doing it again," the president told supporters in Mankato, Minnesota. "We built the greatest economy in the history of the world and now I have to do it again."
He said: "You know what that is? That's right. That's God testing me. He said, You know, you did it once. And I said, 'Did I do a great job, God? I'm the only one who could do it.' He said that you shouldn't say. Now we're going to have you do it again. I said, 'OK. I agree. You got me.' But I did it once. And now I'm doing it again. And you see the kind of numbers that we're putting up. They're unbelievable. Best job numbers ever. Three months, more jobs in the last three months than ever before."
More than 22 million people lost their jobs following widespread closures and layoffs, effectively wiping out a decade of job growth by April.
The president has frequently pointed to job gains over the last few months as evidence of a rebounding economy following the collapse at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, but those gains likely marked a temporary return to work for many Americans as states began lifting quarantine restrictions before infections began to climb, prompting additional closures.
While the unemployment rate fell from what analysts believe was a 16 per cent high in May to 10.2 per cent in July, that's still as high as unemployment figures from the Great Recession era, when unemployment peaked at 10.6 per cent.
The president – speaking at a series of events on Monday as Democrats prepare to begin a week-long nominating convention to select Joe Biden to face him in November – also invoked religion during an event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he appeared to suggest that he moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to boost his Evangelical Christian support.
"The Evangelicals are more excited about that than Jewish people," he told supporters.
