President Trump tweets about Raimondo, state economy

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — We know President Donald Trump loves twitter.

He especially likes to settle scores with it, so when New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman whacked him in a column two days ago, he fought back with assorted insults.

The newspaper column also complimented Rhode Island's Governor Gina Raimondo as a moderate Democrat improving her economy.

Friedman wrote, "Ask Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island's governor, and my kind of Democrat. She was just elected in 2018 for a second term. In both her elections she had to win a primary against a more-left Democrat.”

So in Trump's series of tweets, he mentioned Raimondo, not by name, but by saying, "....Governor of the State did a good job. That may be true but she could not have done it without the tremendous economic success of our Country & the turnaround that my Administration has caused."

Raimondo was on WPRO Friday morning, and responded to Gene Valicenti's question.

"I'm pleased that the President agrees Rhode Island has had an economic turnaround because we have. The national economy is doing better, but I spend a lot of time protecting Rhode Islanders from him," said Raimondo.

And she would not give him any credit for economic gains in Rhode Island.

Mike Stenhouse from the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity thinks she's wrong.

"The 2017 tax cuts the regulatory reform have boosted the whole country and every state's economy with it. There's no question Rhode Island is riding the coattails of President Trump's policies," said Stenhouse.

As far as Raimondo getting into a Twitter war with the president, she declined, saying, "No I'll just carry on with my day job." A good choice.

President Trump has 62 million Twitter followers. She has 68,000.