Biden says U.S. economy is world's best. Trump calls it a 'cesspool.' Data is clear.

• President Joe Biden is fighting to convince Americans that the U.S. economy is the world's best.
• His opponent, Donald Trump, routinely claims the United States is a "cesspool of ruin."
• By the numbers, Biden is correct: America's economy is stronger than other developed nations.

President Joe Biden is fighting to convince inflation-weary voters that the U.S. economy is healthy.

"America has the best economy in the world," he told NBC's Today Show on Monday, laying out an argument that is central to his reelection campaign.

America's economic standing in the world is becoming an early flashpoint on the campaign trail, where former President Donald Trump routinely depicts the United States as a commercial wasteland.

"We are a nation whose economy is collapsing into a cesspool of ruin," Trump shouted at a Georgia rally last month, "whose supply chain is broken, whose stores are not stocked, whose deliveries are not coming."

But the numbers paint a different picture, one more in line with Biden's narrative of American economic dominance than Trump's apocalyptic warnings.

U.S. gross domestic product was 2.5% in 2023, significantly outpacing that of other developed economies, according to a January report from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF projected that the U.S. will hold that lead in 2024, though it expects GDP to come down to 2.1%.

"The U.S. economy is leading the way for the global economy. It's driving the global economic train," Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi told CNBC. 

Even as interest rates spiked, the labor market has stayed strong. In March, U.S. private companies added 184,000 jobs, payrolls processing firm ADP reported on Wednesday, well ahead of the Dow Jones estimate of 150,000 jobs. It is the