MSNBC host Chris Hayes, a self-described “journalist” who’s often compared to notorious conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow, speculated Saturday that former President Barack Hussein Obama’s economy didn’t perform so poorly because of his economically illiterate policies.

No, according to Hayes, the economy performed so poorly under Obama (versus under current President Donald Trump) because of evil Republicans, business owners and economists.

He posed this bizarre, conspiratorial theory to social media.

Look:

Everyone who called for austerity got it wrong and caused harm

Everyone who scaremongered about the deficit got it wrong and caused harm

Everyone who wrote about the “skills gap” got it wrong and caused harm

Everyone who kept warning about inflation got it wrong and caused harm — Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) May 3, 2019

Lots of regular people – critics, bloggers, gadflies, etc were able to see this but the commanding heights of the econ/policy/political worlds either could not or would not. — Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) May 3, 2019

Or, an even less charitable interpretation: they didn’t get it wrong at all. They didn’t want full employment, they didn’t want wage growth and empowered workers and they certainly didn’t want that happening under a Democratic president. — Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) May 3, 2019

Nothing he wrote made an iota of sense.

The business owners, economists, Republicans and libertarians who complained about Obama driving up the deficit, flushing taxpayer funds down the toilet to fund unaccountable welfare programs and popping out endless regulations weren’t wrong. They were right.

The ones who were wrong were Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, their Democrat peers in Congress and everybody in the media — including Hayes and his peers at MSNBC — who called for more regulations, more welfare spending, more taxes and more waste.

These are the facts. What Hayes wrote Friday was a conspiracy theory, as noted by social media:

Fresh off of peddling the Trump-Russia hoax for two years, an MSNBC anchor is now suggesting the economy sucked under Obama not because of his job-killing policies, but because all businesses in the country conspired to tank the economy to spite Obama. https://t.co/3af1wryB9R — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 3, 2019

All the businesses in America secretly conspired to simultaneously struggle just to hurt Obama. Seems like a viable theory. https://t.co/2vGyAWhJKK — Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) May 4, 2019

Everything is now a GOP conspiracy to the Democrats, including Obama’s poor economic record. https://t.co/MIZPEfSZmz — Abe Greenwald (@AbeGreenwald) May 4, 2019

I see Alex Jones has a leftist counterpart. https://t.co/ene2GLxG96 — Crotchety Old Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) May 3, 2019

This is the sort of dark place we should all resist going to. https://t.co/J7m2sDXryD — Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) May 3, 2019

Or, an even a less sane* interpretation. https://t.co/XxVGWKcHxE — Meech (@michi83) May 3, 2019

A MSM anchor stating that all the business in the country collectively tanked just to stick it to a democratic pres is some next level idiocy. https://t.co/8cptUyvbzM — Paul Thacker (@paulthacker11) May 3, 2019

The latter Twitter user was wrong though about Hayes’ remarks being “some next level idiocy.” If he knew anything about MSNBC, he’d know that such theories are par for the course.

That being said, Trump proved Obama wrong the moment he stepped into office. By then the markets had already begun to rebound because of his promises to curb regulations and cut taxes.

While the economy certainly improved during Obama’s tenure — in part because he stepped into office right at the end of a recession, meaning the economy was poised to only move up, not down — it would and could have improved much quicker had he not been such an economic downer.

Besides over-regulating businesses and promoting welfare, both of which drove the labor force participation rate to a record low, Obama also promoted illegal immigration via his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, DREAM Act and tolerance for sanctuary cities.

Hello – @BarbaraBoxer Obama’s AmeriKA –

Worst Labor Force Participation Rate since Jimmy Carter days. pic.twitter.com/PsSs3yVqh5 — Tom T. ن‎ ™ ?? ?? (@VRWCTexan) February 24, 2015

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

A report published in 2017 by the Federation for American Immigration Reform found that illegal aliens cost the American taxpayer at least $135 billion per year. Illegal aliens also depress wages and reduce the number of available job opportunities for bonafide Americans.

The irony is that during the 2016 presidential election, Obama had the audacity to refer to Trump’s proposals — deregulation, tax cuts, renegotiated trade deals, etc. — as “crazy.”

He also poked fun at the then-GOP nominee’s promise to bring back manufacturing jobs.

“When somebody says like the person you just mentioned who I’m not going to advertise for, that he’s going to bring all these jobs back,” he said during a pro-Clinton stump speech in 2016

“Well, how exactly are you going to do that? What are you going to do? There’s no answer to it. He just says, ‘I’m going to negotiate a better deal.’ Well, how? How exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have?”

With this sort of negative, pessimistic attitude, it’s no wonder his economy effectively failed. Now contrast this attitude to that of the current president.

“[Trump] said to industries that were flat on their backs — manufacturing, construction mining — I’m here for you. We are going to open up the factories, bring those jobs back, renegotiate trade policies, deregulate and cut your taxes. All of that is why we have an economy boom,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway noted during an appearance on Fox News last November.

Listen:

Now compare Obama’s economy to Trump’s economy.

Like Conway said last November on Fox, “It’s called deregulating and undoing the Obama regulations. Bit by bit, President Trump is undoing the Obama legacy. It’s because those were wrong policies that were taking us toward a socialist, pro-government America.”

But good luck trying to explain any of this to conspiracy theorist Chris Hayes.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …