Trump’s Reality

There are many Americans who have spent the past four years living in a reality created by Donald Trump.  While Trump’s record of a job creator left much to be desired, his ability to create a reality that was adopted by over 70 million Americans was his greatest accomplishment.  Unfortunately for Trump, job creation actually “trumps” reality creation.  And, as a job creator, Donald Trump will be the only President since World War II who will leave office with fewer Americans employed that when he entered office.  He will also leave office with smaller growth in economic output that any of his pre-war predecessors.  His “America First” policies did result in factories coming back from China but his trade war with China failed to coerce China into making the policy reforms he demanded.  While his $1.7 trillion dollar tax cut provided a short-lived sugar high to an economy already near full employment but the boost didn’t last and began to fade before all Trump’s economic gains were wiped out by the pandemic.  Although the pandemic’s impact devastated the economy a President is expected to be able to effectively deal with catastrophes and crises and faced with that opportunity Trump has failed miserably.  In fact, his lies about the seriousness of the pandemic and the Covid-19 virus actually led to more preventable deaths and preventable illnesses.  His negotiations with North Korea have gone nowhere as has his threat to end nuclear research in Iran.  As this is being written Trump has only 30 days left in his term in office.  One question in most minds is just what else will he fuck up over that period of time.  One other remaining question which may never be answered is, how much more of both economic mess and political mess he will leave Biden.