When I talk to Trump supporters, they often seemed puzzled by my continued RESISTANCE three years into his term. They, of course, talk up the economy, while bosting that the country is somehow stronger overseas and all is seemingly well at home.
It’s not, but it’s a fools errand to tell them otherwise. After all, this is a class of people who never spent much time investigating facts. When I point out evidence that the economy isn’t working for everybody or that we are actually weaker internationally, they balk. Trump supporters counter that we aren’t in a depression or a war so things must be great! Right?
Naturally, I beg to differ. Just because your house isn’t on fire does not mean all is well.
I like to compare Trump to a man who rents a house, and in effect, that’s exactly what he is. Despite his belief to the contrary, Trump doesn’t own the White House–not now, not ever. Furthermore, the American military isn’t filled with “his generals,” and the nation is not his to do with as he pleases. He is but the 45th tenant to reside in the executive mansion and We The People are his landlords. So a relevant question is, how well has he taken care of our property?
Well, if we merely drive past, our rental house looks all right from the outside. The stock market continues to climb and the unemployment rate has dropped. And if we were to call our tenant up on the phone we’d hear nothing but great things. He would brag to us that the military is stronger than under the last tenant, and claim that our neighbors have more respect for our property rights than ever before. But a good landlord wouldn’t hang up the phone and leave it at that; especially upon hearing rumors to the contrary from the wider community.
True, the stock market is up, but it was also up under our last tenant (even though that guy never got any credit for it). Also, much of the growth is from “stock buybacks,” where the wealthy reacquire shares in their own companies without adding any additional value. And worryingly, this past summer the market experienced a reverse yield curve, indicating that recession is on the horizon. Furthermore, the drop in unemployment isn’t because high paying coal mining jobs are coming back. Far from it! In fact, American industry has continued to take hit after hit due to Trump’s tariffs. And it’s not just industrial jobs that are in a recession; farm bankruptcies were up by 25% in 2019. Trump’s bragging about this economy is like the tenant who tapes up a poster to cover a hole in the wall or shuts the door on the downstairs bathroom never to use it again after the toilet backed up. Things are breaking in our economy, but the Trump-supporting landlord who merely drives by the property will never notice and the bad tenant will never tell.
As for our international standing in the world, sad to say, our neighbors are simply no longer sure that they can trust the USA. Sure, Trump supporters love it when he talks tough to the president of France or insults Canada’s prime minister. But remember, folks, these are our ALLIES! To our enemies such as Russia and North Korea, he lavishes praise on their leaders. That’s like showing up at a neighborhood watch meeting, insulting the cops, and telling everyone that the local street gang isn’t really all that bad. No wonder the neighbors are ringing up us landlords and asking that we take a closer look at our current tenant.
I can go on all day, but I won’t (after all, most of my readers have jobs). I could talk about the flight of experienced staff from critical government agencies, the rampant corruption of Trump’s administration, or the immigration policy that he vowed to fix but has only gotten worse under his watch (illegal entries are UP not down). Unfortunately, no matter how much I explain, the absentee landlords among us don’t seem to care. After all, the last rent check cleared (after that misunderstanding at the bank was cleared up anyway), and the house looks good from the street.
But the attentive landlords among us are growing ever more concerned, and we know there will be a reckoning when this guy moves out.
Sure, we may get lucky and find a new tenant who’s handy with a hammer. That would be a break indeed because well we know the amount of damage tenant Trump is now wrecking. The new tenant will find trash in every room, holes in the walls, stopped up plumbing and a national debt approaching one trillion dollars. Perhaps this new tenant will prove handy enough to fix all of this, but even so, it would be years before we collected another rent check. After all, in any business, there is always a price to pay–for new paint, carpentry, and new light fixtures. Not to mention lagging infrastructure costs, the hiring and training of new staff to shore up demoralized agencies, and the expense for all those lawsuits pending over Trump’s immigration and environmental policies. We who are paying attention know that all of this will have to be paid for before any profit can be eked out of this once lucrative property.
And in the next administration, when that bill comes due, you can count on hearing Trump’s supporters singing one of two songs, either, “We Didn’t Know Trump Was This Bad” by Lou Dobbs, or “Why Is This New President Taking So Long To Fix Our House” by Shawn Hannity.
And neither one is music to my ears.
Clayton Callahan
That’s right–ZERO!
America, We Are Better Than This! 