But it was recession-free during the tenures of Democrats Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s and Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

“The U.S. economy has performed better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican,” Princeton University professors Alan Blinder and Mark Watson wrote in a paper published in the American Economic Review this year.

The difference isn't due to more expansionary fiscal and monetary policies under Democrats, according to Blinder, who served in the Clinton White House, and Watson.

Instead it appears to stem from less costly oil shocks, a more favorable international environment, productivity-boosting technological advances, and perhaps more optimistic consumers, they wrote. Some of those disparities may be down to better policies, but luck also played a role.

Fels cautioned against overestimating the ability of presidents to prevent recessions—or to create them for that matter. After all, it's often the Federal Reserve that determines the ups and downs of the economy through changes in interest rates.

What's more, some Republican presidents just caught a bad break, Fels said. Dwight Eisenhower, for instance, took office in 1953 when the U.S. was still enmeshed in the Korean War.

Others inherited recession-prone economies from their Democratic predecessors. Inflation was running above 10 percent when Ronald Reagan took over from Carter in January 1981, and then-Fed Chairman Paul Volcker was determined to squelch it.

Trump said during the campaign that his plans would result in 3.5 percent annual growth, well above the 2.1 percent pace of the current expansion. Still, there's no denying the Republican record when it comes to recessions. If Trump wants to ensure himself a successful presidency, that might be another party tradition the unconventional leader-in-waiting may have to break.

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