: White House stumbles trying to crow about economic growth

United States

On Thursday morning, the White House released a seemingly innocuous tweet, hyping the economic growth numbers in 2021.

However, the White House added an extra line on the y-axis between 5% and 6% growth. That 5.5% line inflated the scope of the 2021 growth, which would have already been impressive. But instead of talking about the growth, conversation amongst Twitter TWTR, +3.46% users turned immediately turned to the unforced error.

The White House fixed the chart — and the y-axis — in a subsequent tweet, adding, “this is y you proofread.” But the damage was still done.