Atlanta, GA
July 28, 2024
Guess it’s time to sacrifice some subscribers.
That’s OK. I occasionally need to prune those willing to listen only to what they like.
Let’s see how many that is!
After some weird responses to my last essay, I feel compelled to make an admission. I’m not sure why, since I’ve made it many times…including yesterday, in the article that prompted the one you’re reading. But here goes:
I don’t like Donald Trump.
For forty years, I never have. In fact, I despise him. I’m not sure how to make that any more clear. But I’ll offer an abridged list of reasons to emphasize the point.
(Incidentally, my assessments of the best presidents are here, here, here, and here. The worst are here, here, here, and here. Oh, yeah…and here. Spoiler: Trump is on the naughty list.)
A Litany of Offenses
At the risk of rehashing Jefferson’s indictment of George III (without the eloquence, but with more justification):
Trump is responsible for the worst year in modern American history, during which he issued an unconstitutional “State of Emergency”, restricted travel, and allowed two-bit bureaucrats to issue authoritarian edicts that gave governors cover to clamp down on citizens.
These acts wrecked livelihoods, increased suicides, prohibited diagnoses, amplified alcoholism, destroyed families, ruined friendships, and caused innumerable deaths that will never be traced to their precipitate cause. And most know now what some of us insisted then:
It was all for nothing.
Covid was going to do what it did no matter what politicians or “public health” hacks said. Joe Biden exacerbated America’s Covid calamity. But Donald Trump made it possible.
He can never be forgiven for that. This alone disqualifies him from being seen in public, much less being president.
But for anyone inclined to turn the other cheek, he also spent insatiably. I know, I know… Congress controls the purse strings. But Trump was all for pulling them.
If anything, he wanted to yank them further. Being a professional real estate debtor, he called himself a “low interest rate guy”, and urged the Fed to keep the cost of capital nailed to the floor. The moment it lifted, the economy would trip. And it did.
Despite The Donald’s hyperbolic boasting, his was not “the greatest economy of all time.” It was a distorted mess swept under a rug of leverage. More debt piled up in Trump’s term than in any other, including (so far) the administration we’re enduring today.
Sure, the stock market hit record highs when Trump was in office. But that isn’t “the economy”, especially after the flood of liquidity following 2008.
Floating on a counterfeit sea, equity prices had trended up since the Financial Crisis, and continued higher after Trump left. Like Obama and Biden, he rode the wave. But he didn’t build the board.
He pushed and praised the crony CARES Act. This $2.2T (!) extravaganza of contrived cash is directly responsible for the inflationary flames that incinerated purchasing power the next few years.
His CDC required masks on planes, recommended covid injections to infants, and issued edicts prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants. Not only were these acts medically useless and mostly harmful, they’re blatantly unconstitutional.
Yet Trump did nothing to stop them. Instead, he reinforced the overreach, bragging how he was protecting renters and saving lives. And he did so while wasting tens of thousands around the world.
Trump asserts he “didn’t start any wars.” That’s not really true. But even if it were, it wasn’t for lack of trying. His administration launched missiles into Iraq and Syria, assassinated Iran’s top general, sent weapons and resources into the Ukraine, moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and perpetuated a horrendous genocide in Yemen.
As with his most recent predecessors and immediate successor, Trump should stand trial for war crimes. Under a decent system of justice, he’d be found guilty, and shipped to St Helena.
Like most every executive since Calvin Coolidge, he should’ve been impeached for an assortment of offenses. But had he been charged for any of those, most of his accusers would’ve been just as culpable.
So instead those opportunists concocted a couple inconsequential “crimes” to remove him from office and keep him from running again. As usual, neither effort worked.
Binary Thinking
By almost any metric, the Trump Administration was horrific. So why not criticize him more often?
Because it’s boring. Almost every entertainment, academic, and corporate media outlet rips Trump incessantly (albeit usually for reasons that are inconsequential or exaggerated, or over things he never said or did).
It’s more interesting to laugh at the lunacy of his more deranged detractors, which makes them think I approve of who caused their anxiety (in fairness, to that limited extent, I suppose I do).
I realize in politics that when teams form and sides are chosen, binary thinking tends to prevail. But detesting a politician doesn’t mean I don’t revile his rivals. It’s conceivable (and reasonable) to hate Hillary Clinton and detest Donald Trump.
We can recognize Murray Rothbard’s adage that the two parties are different wings of the same bird of prey. It astounds me how few people are capable of doing so.
I’m also not misguided enough to think (aside from his style) that Trump is that different from his contemporary peers. As the examples above illustrate, the economic, cultural, and geopolitical trajectory barely moved during Trump’s term. The shade varied and the trim was different, but the colors were essentially the same.
Like most politicians, he says a lot but accomplishes little (of anything beneficial). Recalling just two of his 2016 campaign promises, the debt’s still there and “the wall” isn’t. And it isn’t the Mexicans paying for either one.
By revoking the nuclear deal with Iran and reversing restrictions on Cuba that Barack Obama relaxed, Trump undid two of the few genuine accomplishments his predecessor could claim. Troops stayed in Afghanistan and Guantanamo is still open. This isn’t a “success.”
The Biggest Threat
Trump’s biggest threat is probably the cultish appeal from his “base”. But not for reasons his critics suppose.
With their man in power, the MAGA fanatics may be more willing to accept or excuse a greater number of affronts, many of which are supported by the leftists they loathe. It wouldn’t be the first time…and they’d find excuses for it. They certainly did during Trump’s first term.
They’d blame Administration policy they don’t like on duplicitous, back-stabbing underlings, with no accountability for the man who appointed them.
Fauci, Bolton, Wray, Pence, and Pompeo were always the problem (and they were). But Donald Trump was always let off the hook. To his zealots, he could do no wrong. He still can’t.
The president’s followers cheered when he insulted anyone who (ostensibly) undermined him. But he rarely did anything to stop them. He was either impotent or incompetent to do so. Or he simply didn’t care.
The MAGA apologists were great at looking the other way. Exorbitant spending was fine when their guy did it. Covid decrees were understandable under the Trump regime. As was egging on Russia and dropping bombs on Arabs (then again, most Trump supporters are fine with that no matter who does it).
His Greatest Attribute
The swamp deepened with each year of Trump’s term. He left behind a Pantanal on the Potomac. He deepened an Okefenokee in the Oval Office. But his followers’ reaction was to take a dip.
Yet as awful as Trump is, he isn’t a unique evil. And he certainly isn’t “Hitler”, an existential danger to “democracy”, a “white supremacist”, or the leader of an “insurrection” worse than having the Maine sunk at Pearl Harbor on 9/11. (My initial reaction to “January 6”, written the next morning, holds up pretty well).
Donald Trump is basically a profligate, money printing, trigger-happy New Deal Democrat, but with social views consistent with modern Alphabet activists (“that’s why we have menus in restaurants”, he once remarked).
In other words, he’s like most presidents of the last century…but much more lenient.
His greatest attributes are his most obnoxious enemies, who can’t help but be foils for his instinctive abuse. It’s possible for Trump to be godawful (I hope I’ve made clear I think he is) without going overboard to pretend he’s even worse.
Yet his most vocal detractors do so while simultaneously praising his adversaries, most of whom are hardly different than the man they despise.
Unbeknownst to his most of these critics, neither are they.
JD
Wow. Even if I agreed with you my current alternative would be Kamala which would be an infinitely worse choice. Even if you are right the other option is the worst of the two choices. So by default Trump gets my vote all day long.
Sheesh JD.
Tell it like it is and congrats on speaking the truth, not just about Trump but the whole political class!!