Michael Hiltzik: Trump didn't get his 3 percent-plus economic growth for 2017, after all

Here's a prediction: You won't be hearing Donald Trump crowing about U.S. economic growth under his administration, at least not for a while.

Since the presidential campaign, Trump and his minions have been predicting that his policies would bring an increase in annual growth of better than 3 percent a year. They broke out the Champagne after the figures for the second and third quarter of 2017 showed annualized growth in excess of 3 percent.

Turns out that was premature. The first reading of real growth domestic product for the fourth quarter of 2017 was published Friday by the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis, and it shows an increase of only 2.6 percent. For the whole year, the increase in real GDP is 2.3 percent. That's better than the 1.5 percent growth rate in 2016, the last