I looked at Wikipedia:
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States#21st_century)
2013 GDP $16.785 trillion
2016 GDP $18.715 trillion
2019 GDP $21.439 trillion
18.715/16.785 = 1.115 and 21.439/18.715 = 1.146
So GDP grew 11.5% from 2013 to 2016. GDP grew 14.6% from 2016 to 2019. So the first 3 years of Trump the GDP grew more than the last 3 years of Obama. The main stream media got the claim wrong.
When you use vague terms like “the economy” one can interpret that any way one wishes. By every objective metric I can think of, the claim that Trump’s first 3 pre-covid years were no better than Obama’s last year or three is preposterous. Maybe some people did worse, some did better, but overall jobs growth, GDP growth, unemployment etc Trump did way better.