My internet was out this morning. I’m a bit tardy. Better late than never.
Make America Great Again! That’s what the hats say. That’s what the bumper stickers say. That’s what Donald Trump says. He has been in office almost 4 years now and that should be long enough to have made some impact – positive or negative – on the country. It seems logical to ask the question, “Is the country in better shape and are people better off than they were when Trump took office?”
Trump loves to talk about the economy and the stock market so let’s start there. The annualized rate of GDP growth under Trump through 2019 was 2.5%.1 The GDP under Obama in his first term was 2.0% but he was coming off the crash of 2008. In his second term it was 2.3%. The fact is that Trump inherited a growing economy and his policies did very little to make it boom. The GDP under Clinton’s two terms were 3.5% and 4%, respectively. The GDP under Reagan’s two terms were 3.1% and 3.9%. The facts are that the economy under Trump is not historically great. And that was before the coronavirus.
“The US GDP shrank 9.1 per cent for the April-June quarter of 2020. This is the largest quarterly decline since the series began in 1947, even as the market expectations were much lower than the actual number. The GDP contracted at a 31.7 per cent annualised rate in the given quarter.”2 When you take in what has happened to the economy as a result of the pandemic, the GDP performance under Trump is way worse than 2.5%.
I’m sure there are those of his supporters who would counter that you can’t blame Trump for the coronavirus and its impact on the economy. While, on the surface that is true, if he is running his reelection campaign based upon a strong economy, one would think that tackling the pandemic would be the first order of business – rather than just pretending it doesn’t exist or will just magically go away.
Let’s turn to the stock market, another of Trump’s favorite metrics to talk about. I cited these figures in a previous post but they demonstrate that the returns on the S&P have not been ‘historic’ as Trump likes to claim. Clinton (210%); Obama (182%); Eisenhower (129%); Reagan (117%); Truman (87%); HW Bush (51%); Johnson (46%); Trump (43%).3 Trump continuously talks about how he has made a huge economic impact on the economy – the facts do not bear that out. If the economy was part of the ‘MAGA’ promise – we’re still waiting.
Unemployment was another favorite topic that Trump liked to talk about, particularly before the pandemic when, and it is true, unemployment rates were at historic lows. However, we need to deal with reality and the here and now and right now, “Friday’s jobs report will be the last look we get at the American labor market before the election. Economists expect an unemployment rate of 8.2% — only slightly less than in August — which would be the highest jobless rate on record (going back to World War II) as Americans head to the polls.”4 Now, not only is the jobless rate terrible, Trump just pulled the rug out from under the negotiations for the stimulus package that millions of Americans were counting on due to their unemployment. Make America Great Again – we are still waiting.
The COVID-19 virus continues to ravage this country, seemingly unchecked. Over 210,000 Americans have died and there is still no national strategy to combat this enemy. There is no national testing strategy. And the Trump administration continues to ignore medical and scientific advice which has not only cost American lives but is having an adverse impact upon the highest levels of our government. We are the laughing stock of the world. The richest and most powerful nation on the planet is stumbling around like the Keystone Kops trying to deal with this. Make America Great Again – we are still waiting.
Trump really doesn’t talk much about international relations but the fact is that this country is no longer viewed with the same respect that we once had. Trump has disparaged and alienated many of our closest allies while he continues to cozy up to people like Kim Jung Un and Vladimir Putin. This is not making America Great Again; this is making America alone in a very complex and dangerous world.
As I recall, Mexico has not paid for a wall. Instead, Trump has tried to reallocate funding (our tax dollars) that was dutifully approved and appropriated by Congress for other things. I am sure there are those who think that Trump’s continued war on immigrants is a good thing. Given that almost everyone in this country, with the exception of the indigenous people, are people whose relatives immigrated to this country during one generation or another, it’s hard to comprehend the disdain for immigrants. Frankly, I think in some people’s eyes (and most certainly Trump’s) the slogan, Make America Great Again, is really code for ‘Make America Predominantly White Again.’ In any case, we’re still waiting for ‘The Wall.’
There are also the deep divisions in this country that have been greatly exaggerated since Trump took office. Is this really making America ‘great?’ Congress is so partisan that it is essentially gridlocked like traffic during rush hour on the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles. The racial tensions in this country are significantly worse than when Trump took office. I would be hard pressed to identify one thing Trump has done to try to unify the country since he took office. Make America Great Again – when Trump took office, we were the United States of America. Now we are the Divided States of America!
And then there is the lying. The current President of the United States continuously lies. Not little white lies – giant, provably false statements – day after day. Trump is a con man. He is a salesman and the product that he is selling is Donald Trump. Is America really great when the Commander in Chief is a serial liar and everyone knows it?
Make America Great Again – let’s hope that we have the opportunity to do that. From my perspective, Trump has failed America like he failed in his businesses. And if he is reelected to another four years, I think ‘Make America Great Again’ will turn into ‘The Decline and Fall of the American Empire.’
- https://www.axios.com/presidents-economy-gdp-trump-5d042c64-ace6-4904-8602-40003f917719.html
- https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/which-top-economies-have-suffered-worst-gdp-fall-due-to-covid-19/story/414683.html
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/23/historical-stock-market-returns-under-every-us-president/#649ea702faaf
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/01/economy/september-jobs-report-preview/index.html