Even on their own terms, Trump’s economic promises defy logic.
President Donald Trump is used to bending reality to his will. But he will soon learn – if he hasn’t already – that this is harder to do with the economy. Just ask former President Joe Biden, who painfully learned that an inflation rate of 9 percent could not be spun as illusory, transitory or driven by a sudden and inexplicable burst of corporate greed. Ultimately, people directly experience their gas and grocery prices, as well as layoffs and stock market downturns. Sustained political popularity requires getting economic policy right, because elected officials cannot spin real economic decline.
As is increasingly evident, many of Trump’s economic policy pronouncements make little sense, in large part because he makes ever-shifting arguments for contradictory policies. A president who promised voters that, “We’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money,” instead induced a market crash that resulted in top aides attacking middle class families as being materialistic for aspiring to afford middle class comforts, as well as claiming that markets had been overvalued and recessions can be good, actually.
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Jessica Riedl (formerly Brian Riedl) is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow her on Twitter here.
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