News Trump Doesn’t Want You to Hear
Donald Trump doesn’t want you to focus on the economy, because the news is very good. Instead he is talking about anything else, including bald-faced lies, to keep the focus on him and his faux outrage. Filed under you-can’t-make-it-up, Republicans are blaming “Democratic rhetoric” for the latest apparent assassination attempt on Trump. All the while Trump and JD Vance are making up stories out of whole cloth that are inciting so much hate and potential violence that an Ohio city is virtually on lockdown.
Here now is some actual news Trump hopes you won’t hear. Too bad.
Yesterday the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in four and a half years. It did so because inflation is under control, having fallen for 11 consecutive months, and to encourage more job growth. I say “more job growth” because the Republicans would have you believe we are teetering on the precipice of recession, when in fact unemployment is at 4%. The job market is growing, just not at the same rate it has been.
When announcing the rate cut, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that “our economy is strong overall and has made significant progress toward our goals over the past two years.”
Republicans’ reaction to the cut was as expected. They did not praise the Fed or celebrate the good economic news. Instead, they ranted over the timing, saying it was designed to help Kamala Harris’s campaign. Another distraction.
Powell dismissed their argument. “We do our work to serve all Americans. We’re not serving any politician, any political figure, any cause, any issue, nothing. It’s just maximum employment and price stability on behalf of all Americans,” he said. Remember, too, that Powell was a Trump appointee.
During the Biden-Harris administration,14.8 million jobs have been created, including a whopping 800,000 manufacturing jobs. The sharp increase in the manufacturing sector has added an estimated $12 trillion to the U.S. economy. Over the same time period, 10 million new small businesses were started. The stock market is at historic highs, which in turn has meant good things for folks’ 401(k)s. Gas prices are trending downward; the nationwide average for a gallon of regular unleaded is now less than $3. Mortgage rates and car loans have started falling, and this rate cut will continue that trend.
Trump seems incapable of talking about his economic plans. When his campaign has promised a press conference or speech on the economy, Trump stays on message for about a New York minute and then pivots to his lie du jour.
One can piece together Trump’s ideas from various things he has said during this long campaign. Economists across the political spectrum have denounced most of it. Desmond Lachman of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute calls Trump’s economic ideas “dangerous.”
“There is every reason to fear that if Trump were to be elected and to implement his proposed economic policies, the American electorate might soon have buyer’s remorse as it bore the economic costs,” Lachman wrote.
Trump’s favorite plan for the economy is a huge, unfunded tax cut for corporations and wealthy individuals. That went so well the last time. His 2017 tax cut coupled with major Trump-approved government spending increases resulted in an almost 50% increase in the budget deficit, of $1 trillion. But you ain’t seen nothing yet. The Penn Wharton budget model predicts that Trump’s new tax cuts would add more than $5 trillion to the budget deficit over 10 years. That’s five times more than the last one.
Trump also wants to impose a huge tariff on imported goods. The Peterson Institute of International Economics calculated that the tariffs would cost an average American household $2,600 a year. Vice President Harris rightly called this a “Trump tax” during the debate. Goldman Sachs said the tariffs would significantly increase inflation.
And if you think imposing tariffs makes no economic sense, how about Trump’s plan to bring food prices down by restricting food imports? Yup, Trump believes that reducing supply will somehow lower prices. Economics 101 says otherwise.
And then there is his promise to deport 10 million immigrants. Beside the moral issues with this racist proposal, the mass deportation would cause a significant slowdown in our economy, including a spike in wages and prices.
In sum, Trump has said he wants to restrict food imports and deport many who harvest our crops. Good luck with that.
When Joe Biden was running for reelection, one of his biggest challenges was Americans’ perceptions of how he handled the economy. A majority gave him low marks, while many believed Trump had managed the economy well. Harris has been steadily closing the gap. A Morning Consult poll out today has Harris and Trump tied on their handling of the economy. No wonder Trump wants to talk about anything else.
Dan Rather is a journalist, storyteller, and lifelong reader. A Texan, by birth and by choice.