Which recent President has helped the middle class the most?  And which has hurt the middle class the most?

We think one of the best measures is real take-home pay for the median-income family – i.e., those right smack dab in the middle of the income spectrum.

Here are the results based on the official Census Bureau data. Trump has the best record.  Biden by far the worst.

Amazingly, median income rose more in Trump’s four years in office than under Bush, Obama, and Biden COMBINED!  And this analysis includes the lockdown year of 2020, which happened under Trump, when incomes collapsed because the economy shut down for almost half a year.

Since Trump only served one four-year term and Bush and Obama served two four-year terms (and the Biden numbers are for half his term), it is also meaningful to look at these four Presidents’ records per year in office.  Annualized, the middle class did twice as well under the Trump years than under the Obama years.  And families have lost income under Biden so far.