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Last year was an impressive year for airline safety, with no civilian passenger deaths resulting from large jet airliner accidents.

2017 was "the safest year ever, both by the number of fatal accidents as well as in terms of fatalities, according to the Aviation Safety Network. Experts say improving industry safety standards over the past two decades have helped dramatically decrease deaths.

For example, in 2005, 1,050 passengers died in more than a dozen separate aircraft disasters, while the last commercial accident to occur in the United States happened nearly 10 years ago.

Now it seems Donald Trump deserves to take at least some of the credit, according to the US president himself.

He posted this to Twitter on Tuesday (January 2): "Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!"

Social media users know the President has a habit of taking credit for events not entirely in his control – he and his supporters often point to the improving stock market, employment figures and other economic data as examples of his success - but this boast was a step too far for his many critics.

Here is just some reaction to his tweet:

Some point out that Fox News ran a segment about improving jet liner fatalities earlier in the day which, as an avid viewer, may have prompted Trump's tweet.

Trump and his administration made some very tentative efforts to overhaul airline safety last year.

In July 2017 the president put forward proposals to privatise air traffic control to take it out of the hands of the federal government. While the White House's 2018 budget will push for more reform around this matter, his claims are hard to support. Most will chalk it off as yet another in a long line of farcical Trump boasts.

Here are just a few more issues the Trump administration has taken credit for since taking office in February:

- A drop in the number of migrants attempting to cross the Mexico border.

- Securing a reduced cost deal for an order of military jets: In April he claimed he was directly responsible for savings of $700m on a deal for F-35 fighters from manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

"Now you know that's a saving of billions and billions of dollars, many billions of dollars over the course of — it's between 2,500 and 3,000 planes will be the final order," he said in a interview with Associated Press.

- Record high share prices for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones: While some commentators are divided on whether he is responsible for Wall Street's impressive winning streak last year, Trump often uses the improving data as an indicator of his success.

- Dismantling Obamacare: In a tweet sent over Christmas, Trump claimed the Congress's approval of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017would effectively kill his predecessor's health plans by repealing the individual mandate provision. Others were not so sure.

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