I voted for ole ‘ Joe the time he BEAT ole’ Donald….
(I voted for Kamala Harris also)
I’d take him back in a heartbeat right now….
President Joe Biden, walking fossil or not, handed Trump an economy that was roaring by pretty much every macro metric. The one massive fly in the ointment—the persistent inflation that doomed Democrats last year—posed little risk to the incoming president. After all, voters had already hung it around Biden’s neck. It was clear skies and smooth sailing ahead. The big gripe among Bidenites, in fact, was that all Trump had to do was sit back, relax, and take the credit as America’s economic messiah.
Instead, less than two months after his inauguration, Trump has been Reverse Jesus, speaking new economic storms into existence. His will-he-or-won’t-he trade-war tap dance with Mexico and Canada has markets genuinely freaked. Ditto with his remarkable refusal to rule out the possibility of a recession over the weekend. Yesterday was the worst day for stocks in years, putting an exclamation point on a remarkable two-week slump with no end in sight….
…
In all this, Trump is caught between two deeply held beliefs. For him, it is an article of faith that more tariffs = more prosperity. There is simply no position he has expressed more regularly throughout his political career. Yet he is also image-obsessed and brand-conscious, and he knows the effect on his brand of the stock markets lingering in the red. So he cannot commit to either course—he swerves first in one direction, then another, seeming blissfully unaware that the constant swerves are as damaging as just going ahead with the tariffs would be.
The remarkable thing is that we’re just getting started. This is only one plank of Trump’s economically risky agenda. His assaults on basic government functions are risking a future meltdown due to severe cuts to core services. His planned deportation of millions of migrants will shrink the U.S. labor force. A debt ceiling fight is on the horizon. Buckle up, folks—the worst may be yet to come….
image…The New Yorker
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