The Phony Populist Shuffle:
Calling out Trump 2024, and the Swindler-in-Chief's Long History of Empty Promises.
Feel free to check the entire blog archives from “Political Pulse” & “Salzillo Report” on the 2024 primary cycle, rural outreach, redistricting litigation, base dynamics, campaign organization, the current media landscape, the issues at stake, Project 2025, Build Back Better, the progressive movement, the true story about former 2024 VP contender Gina Raimondo, and much more.
Question of the week: “what country are Haitians from?” The answer may surprise you:
We have some news that might have not hit the mainstream media yet. From The Intercept, in 2021, Joe Manchin met with billionaire donors scheming to defend the filibuster so a conservative Big Money agenda could be preserved long term. Do we need any more evidence to show Manchinema and Congressional Republicans sabotaged what could have been an even bolder agenda from the Biden-Harris Administration?
Alas, back in 2016, Trump was the outsider politician. Even though he had no record, he did have a message of promising a departure from the past. The calls for change were reasons he outperformed expectations across the map and upset Hillary Clinton, the embodiment of Washington DC career politics, in the three bellwether states she almost never visited that year: Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
2020, and 2024 especially, is different. We know his record.
2024 is no usual election. We have the incumbent Vice President of the United States up against the former President who preceded Joe Biden’s fair, free, and legitimate election victory in 2020.
We should discuss both records and the campaign visions behind them. Better yet, let’s look at America in the final days of Trump.
In January 2021, the nation was reeling from the deadliest winter surge phase of the coronavirus pandemic that—at that point—already killed half a million Americans and locked down the country. The economy was trying to get out of a pandemic-induced recession, where unemployment spiked to 14%, and still was in high single digits by January 20. Racial divisions plagued the country after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. And there was an insurrection, an attempted coup incited by Trump because he snapped from a bitter election loss to Joe Biden.
Build Back Better is more than a slogan. It is a concrete agenda, with dozens of pieces of legislation, a number of executive actions and measures, monumental reforms to domestic and foreign policy, and immense benefits for the nation and the globe along the way. It is an agenda that parallels even the New Deal and the Great Society. It has invested from the bottom-up instead of the top-down and has lifted up working families and forgotten communities instead of serving the special interests. It has defended our freedoms & liberties in spite of all the difficulty out there, rebounded our markets from Great Recession-era distress, ended the pandemic lifestyle of 2020, and unified the world against autocratic tyrants.
And it was done mostly within 2 years, despite almost no help and all obstruction from Congressional Republicans, and complete resistance from the US Supreme Court and pro-Trump judges from all across the country.
Think about it this way. We have more work to do, something the Biden-Harris Administration and the Harris-Walz campaign agenda both acknowledge. The question is, who do you want to lead us to the future, based on the campaign visions at hand and the track records we now know?
People like Frank Luntz say we were better off 4 years ago. Really? Were we better off when we were locked down in our homes because Trump failed to protect we the people? Were we better off when people were in lines for getting unemployment assistance, or when we had long vehicle lines at food pantries because people could not find work, lost their incomes, and were at the edge of being evicted? Were we better off when we were struggling to get ventilators and all kinds of personal protective equipment throughout 2020? Anyone remember the PPP relief? Probably not, because most of that went to the rich people and organizations that didn’t need the aid.
Were we better off when cities and towns were in curfew because Trump inflamed tensions between law enforcement and the communities after George Floyd, including by rounding up some protesters who weren’t even violent? Never forget the upside-down Bible photo ops, everyone.
And were we better off when we saw an attack on our US Capitol for the first time since the War of 1812? Maybe Putin and Xi enjoyed those days, but I didn’t, and most voters across the country did not either. Never forget.
Trump has no vision beyond himself (count the times he talks about himself and people like him compared to how much he talks about the concerns of regular people). His phony populism is a cover for the essence of Agenda 47, which is Project 2025 under a different name (Trump publicly admitted recently that Project 2025 will lay the groundwork for his second term).
What has Trump done for you, and what makes you think he is going to do something for you now? The fact is that most of his previous campaign promises to the working and middle classes were empty.
He said the Trump Tax Cuts would lower the deficit. It actually increased the deficit by $2 trillion, with working families getting crumbs in relief, while most of the cuts went to wealthy oligarchs, large corporations, and favored special interests. It was the same approach with repealing Dodd-Frank in 2018.
He promised an economic revitalization. The words are hollow to places like Lordstown, Ohio, and Racine, Wisconsin, where plants closed up under Trump and opened up under Biden. Manufacturing jobs were lost during Trump, and job growth elsewhere was slower than it was in the Obama years. Agriculture took a bit hit with the pandemic too. Trade wars and tariffs also harmed our farmers, even as the largest agribusinesses got a good ol’ Trump bailout of $60 billion, just so he could save face.
He promised a whole approach to trade, but in truth, he made only one reform to trade policy in 2019. Inequality peaked in these years in a way unseen since the Gilded Age, particularly after Trump’s pandemic response. Costs rose and incomes plummeted.
There is no border wall, maybe some fencing here and there at best. Mexico did not pay for the wall. Border crossings increased as people exploited underground tunnels beneath the fencing.
Crime actually went up during Trump, with the scenes we saw across the country in 2020. Unlike what is happening now. In fact, Trump himself took the time to commit crimes by blackmailing Ukraine and inciting an insurrection that injured 140+ police officers.
He promised stability, but caused chaos cozying up to Putin, Xi, Kim, and Hungary’s infamous Viktor Orban. They are the strongman idols he wants to imitate right here in the United States.
He said he wouldn’t golf like Obama. He’s right. In fact, he golfed more than Obama ever did.
So what does that say about his 2024 promises?
Trump says he will lower inflation. Really? How Donald? By your empty promise to lower energy costs by half by the end of 2025? How are you going to do it? Because I sure don’t know.
Trump is proposing tariffs once more that would worsen inflation. At least a 20% sales tax on all goods by reigniting trade wars with other nations. Tax cuts and deregulation for the elites will jack up inflation too. But nothing to tackle price-gouging, greedflation, shrinkflation, or real supply chain issues. Won’t hear anything about that.
Trump says he will take on the so-called crime wave. I suppose he will try out another failed War on Crime with reinstating the death penalty, and boosting mass incarceration numbers across the country. He’ll do quite a job weaponizing the DOJ to go after his political opponents, as he has promised to do against Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, and others. Ironically, we’re the ones funding the police, and yet Donald Trump wants to them to be entirely under his control (not ours).
Trump says he will solve the border crisis. He is going to have a tough time making that case after sabotaging the bipartisan border deal earlier this past February. Anyone know what mass deportations will do besides reap chaos? It will shrink the labor supply completely, which will also increase financial strain on us and stall the economy.
Trump says he will solve the foreign policy crises in Ukraine and the Middle East in a day, before he even gets into office. C’mon man! Lies like that wouldn’t even be realistic in a fairytale.
He talks about no taxes on tips even though his administration diverted tip money towards business executives, and no taxes on overtime even though his 2nd term plan includes eliminating overtime. Mandatory IVF coverage. Marijuana legalization. Next up from him will be free kitchens and new castles for every American.
See the trend? Empty promises that cannot be fulfilled in any way possible. Besides, why would we ever believe he is even being honest with us?
You think I’m exaggerating? Forget what I say or who reports the story. Go on the web, or some other archives, and hear Trump’s words for yourself.
I will continue to implore the Harris-Walz campaign to do more policy rollouts. I will also encourage more Harris-Walz interaction with the American electorate in one way or another, whether through the media or directly to us. However, clearly there is only one presidential ticket serious about the willingness to govern in good faith. The other ticket is a clown show of imbeciles over-their-heads who have a truly warped mentality of what it means to be an American. Trump and Vance sit in a class detached from every decent human being regardless of party.
If you heard someone else not named Trump say everything Trump and Vance have said, would you really have them run the greatest nation on Earth? I think most people would say of course not. And Trump-Vance should be no different.
Furthermore, it is clear that Trump is aging, has lost his fastball, and continues to be fading fast. I really wish I was kidding:
He said the Bagram Air Base is in Alaska instead of Afghanistan.
He said California can solve its water crisis simply by opening its large faucet…huh?
He is still so fixated on Hannibal Lector.
He brags about having bigger rally crowds than Winston Churchill. Really? When? During the Battle of London?
He keeps throwing barbs at Jimmy Kimmel. Who has the time to do that as President?
He says Jews & Catholics who don’t vote for him should have their heads examined? Maybe Trump should have his head examined instead.
Also, for someone so insecure to say he’s not weird over and over again, Trump sure is weird.
Not the guy I want running this country.
All of which covers Trump for now. Stay tuned for more discussion on the other side, including with policy issues and current events.