Critics blast Trump's self-congratulatory tweet about the decline in cancer deaths after his administration decimated research budgets

President Donald Trump is often quick to take credit for any good news – while pawning off responsibility for negative outcomes on others, especially his predecessor. But social media users were stunned – and many outraged – when Trump tweeted Thursday morning a clear pat on the back for himself on recent news the rate of cancer deaths in America took a steep drop.

“Cancer Death Rate in U.S. Sees Sharpest One-Year Drop,” a New York Times headline reported Wednesday. “The cancer death rate in the United States fell 2.2 percent from 2016 to 2017 — the largest single-year decline in cancer mortality ever reported.”

President Trump was not even in office for the full year of 2017, so it’s literally impossible that anything he has done has contributed to the welcome decline in the cancer death rate.

But he took credit nonetheless.

Many were furious, given that Trump’s budget has slashed funding for cancer research and prevention. His 2020 budget cuts $35 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for its cancer screening and prevention programs, Cancer Health reported.

But that’s a fraction of the devastating $897 million gutting of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are also massive cuts proposed for other agencies that work to help fight cancer.

“The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would see the second largest cut, at $769 million, and the National Human Genome Research Institute would lose $80 million.”

And if anything, Trump’s damaging decisions are doubtlessly increasing future rates of cancer and other preventable diseases and deaths:

Here’s how social media users are responding: