As the New York Times reports today, the Trump economy collapsed like a house of cards in 2020. Year over year G.D.P. plunged 3.5%, “the worst on record.” We lost millions of jobs. It took trillions of taxpayer dollars in federal aid to avert a total and utter meltdown—and despite that, the US economy remains “in a significant hole.”
Throughout his Presidency, Trump’s “greatest economy ever” bullshit was, of course, one of the biggest cons he ever pulled. And for most of his Presidency the gullible media played along. Trump promised his tax cuts for the rich (aka the #GOPTaxScam) would “skyrocket” the economy to growth of 5% or even 6%. He never got close, creating fewer jobs in his first three years than Obama created in his final three, even as the debt (which he had promised to eliminate) soared by $8 trillion in a single term.
The Trump Recession, of course, officially began in February 2020, before the pandemic lockdowns began. It was preceded by a year-long US manufacturing recession in 2019 and a surge in farm bankruptcies, both of which were directly caused by Trump’s failed trade war with China.
As 2020 began, Trump was so desperate for an election-year trade deal with China that he pretended the coronavirus wasn’t a thing until he got his dumb “partial” deal signed. Then, thanks to his recklessness and incompetence in handling the pandemic, the deal became meaningless anyway.
After four disastrous years, one-term loser and failed insurrectionist Trump became “the only modern president to leave office with fewer U.S. jobs than when his term began.”
He made the nation poorer, sicker and weaker.
The death, devastation and despair he caused in America’s worst year ever have cemented his status as the worst president ever.
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