Donald Trump has always been about fluffing up his non-accomplishments. He once claimed he was worth TEN BILLION DOLLARS, and that he amassed that fortune after receiving a mere pittance in seed money from his well-heeled slumlord dad.
But the truth is, his life has really been nothing more than a 73-year-long Trump Steaks ad. There’s simply not a lot there, so he knew what he had to do when he got in office: ride Obama’s coattails on the economy and pretend he was the one driving all along.
And so far he’s done a pretty good job of fooling some of the people, even though job growth has slowed significantly since his inauguration and the stock market has basically gone sideways for a year and a half. In fact, stock market gains — Trump’s go-to metric — have been pretty ordinary during his administration, and have generally lagged behind those achieved during both Obama’s first and second terms.
So, basically, Trump has been festooning tinsel on a fart since day one and trying to make it look like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
But it looks like that’s about to end.
According to Axios, White House insiders are freaking out about the latest recession signals and are very worried that Trump’s ability to pull us out of a downturn has been seriously compromised:
With #TrumpRecession trending on Twitter, a source close to President Trump told Axios, "I’m very worried about the latest economic data. A lot of us are concerned. Without the narrative on the economy, he can't win."
You mean deep-seated racism and rampant, unhinged fear-mongering won’t be enough to convince people to vote for an amoral pimiento loaf a second time? You don’t say!
And the problem with the economy? It’s not the Fed, though that’s Trump’s ready-made excuse for his eventual failure. Oh, no. It’s clearly him.
The bottom line: A former senior White House official told me, "Continued economic expansion is not a given. Most of the benefits from Trump’s tax cuts and regulatory relief have already taken effect."
- "Rather than attack the global system that has produced so much prosperity for America, Trump would do well to harness its potential for economic growth."
- "The consequences of further isolating ourselves from the world may turn out to be quite severe."
Trump has done pretty much everything wrong when it comes to the economy: he passed a budget-busting tax cut aimed at a narrow cohort of already wealthy taxpayers at the height of an economic recovery; he started a ruinous trade war with no real exit strategy; he hectored his own Fed appointee, thereby undermining his independence; and he helped undercut Dodd-Frank.
And now the chickens may be coming home. And they’re some pretty fucking ugly chickens, frankly.
As if we didn’t all know before this travesty that Republican = recession.
So how many more times does the GOP have to prove its incompetence before voters get wise?
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