Republican strategist Rick Santorum asserted on Wednesday that former President Barack Obama had “strangled the economy,” which grew seven of the eight years he was in office.

During an interview on CNN’s New Day, Santorum sympathized with President Donald Trump’s frustration at the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates.

“I know it’s frustrating to him to see the Fed prop up the Obama economy for eight years at zero interest rates as Obama’s tax and regulatory policies strangled the American economy,” Santorum complained. “And as soon as Trump comes in and un-strangles the economy, well the Fed comes in and tries to tighten it.”

“It looks like under Obama, the Fed was all for propping up this big socialist gambit that Obama was pushing,” the former GOP senator continued. “And now that we have a strong market-based president, it seems like the Fed is doing everything they can to constrain growth.”Of the eight years of Obama’s presidency, only his first saw negative economic growth due to the Great Recession. The economy grew for seven years under Obama.