Trump’s Seething Anger at Americans

 

Trump’s Seething Anger at Americans

A Matter of Tone or Tone Deafness

"The latest CPI numbers are encouraging for the Federal Reserve, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell has already warned against reading too much into the latest data due to distortions from the shutdown. The central bank will remain most vigilant about the labor market, as a continuation of real wage growth will allow households to fully recover from the hit to their purchasing power since the pandemic." 

Bernard Yaros, lead economist at Oxford Economics, in the December 18th Newsweek

"We're going to get data, but we're going to have to look at it carefully and with a somewhat skeptical eye by the time of the January meeting, notwithstanding that we will have a lot of the December data by the time of the January. So, we expect to see a lot more, but I'm just saying that the—what we get for, for example, CPI or for the, you know, household survey, we're gonna look—we're going to look at that really carefully and understand that it may be distorted by very technical factors." 

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in mid-December

“Many of the people who claim to follow Jesus are instruments of a merciless leader and a merciless movement. They have chosen their political loyalties over their faith, even while using the latter to validate the former. There is something morally twisted and discrediting in this…. One of the most elevating features of Christianity is the concept—and it is not only a Christian concept—of imago Dei. It is the belief that human beings are created in the image of God and valued because we are loved by God. Every person has inherent dignity and worth. Out of that conviction should arise compassion and empathy, including a solidarity with the poor and weak and wounded. It is the way of Jesus—and the way of Jesus, and the person of Jesus, has won our hearts.” 

Peter Wehner in The Atlantic, December 16th.

Donald Trump had a genuine chance towards partial redemption in his 20-minute speech on Wednesday. The inflation rate was down from 3% to 2.7%, pretty much where it was when he took office in Trump 2.0. The expected price increases from his tariffs are only beginning to kick in, but Americans are spending 42% less this holiday season than they spent last year. Clearly, the price at the pump was less, but with a global glut in oil, that was not the result of Trump policies… just overproduction in a world rapidly transitioning to alternative energy. Likewise, the decline in home prices (and even rent) was more a factor of a dearth of buyers now unable to pay highly inflated housing values.

Coming after the shutdown and some of our worst labor numbers, declining faster than we have seen in a very long time, the general consensus of all Americans pinned their 65% supermajority fears of a declining economy squarely on Trump (57%), and only 3% heralded Trump’s economy as “excellent,” pretty much reflective of the monied class that dominates stock/asset ownership… noting that 92% of our GDP growth was, according to the December 18th Los Angeles Times, attributed to one, bubble facing, industry: artificial intelligence. Trump’s touting of the investment dollars he has “secured” - $18-$20 trillion dollars (representing well over 50% of our $38 trillion GDP) – fell into the “pie in the sky” territory. There’s no way to enforce those very loose international pledges, those numbers do not automatically translate into jobs (and certainly zero jobs in the foreseeable future) and even if made, are unlikely seriously to impact our economy in Trump’s lifetime.

Drilling into some underlying specifics in that 2.7% inflation number, the December 18th Newsweek, reports: “Within the 2.7 percent rate of inflation, the energy index rose 4.2 percent over the 12 months ending in November; the food index climbed 2.6 percent; electricity prices were up 6.9 percent; and gas utility costs increased 9.1 percent… Some categories saw prices fall on an annual basis, including dairy and related products (-1.6 percent), fresh fruit and vegetables (-0.2 percent), and eggs (-13.2 percent)… However, coffee and beef costs were up significantly over the past twelve months given recent supply issues, rising 18.8 percent and 15.8 percent respectively.”

As for all those claims he has made the world more peaceful – even the eight “peace settlements” he takes credit for are mostly denied by the relevant nations, and you only have to look at the continuing horrors in Gaza and the West Bank to watch that “peace agreement” unravel – his extra-judicial executions, lacking a supporting congressional vote, of small boats, probably loaded with cocaine that may or may not have been heading to the US may well constitute war crimes or even murder under both international and even US law. His blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers, wherein he claims that oil is “ours,” may require him to deploy our massive offshore navel fleet to fire upon escort ships that the Venezuelan government says it will deploy to project its tankers. Is Trump provoking a war without upfront congressional authority?

His railing at all those criminal immigrants he has thwarted from entering our secure southern border, his expulsion of immigrants with a completely unsubstantiated claim that they were effectively taking rental properties off the market, jobs that should have gone to US citizens, and his claim that his efforts have reduced crimes in the blue cities he has invaded flies in the general rejection of his indiscriminate cruelty… as masked and unidentified federal agents and troop literally marched in the streets over the manifest and massive rejection of such authoritarian tactics by the local American citizens, mayors and in blue state, governors. As so many courts have determined, the unlawful and violent activity may have “subsided” (the rates were already falling) from locally-originated crime, but it was more than made up for by invading federal forces.

We’ve abandoned our European allies, switched sides to favor the murderous Vladimir Putin in his avaricious war to conquer Ukraine, but Trump has not, as he claimed, ramped up global respect for the United States. Europe faces increasing Russian threats and troop build-ups focused well beyond Ukraine.

All of this brings me to the tone and acceleration of his easily disproven falsehoods, the utter lack of empathy for Americans suffering under uncertain economic and job instability that is beyond ubiquitous and the insulting blame shifting that was excessive even by Trump’s generally immoral standards. He even blamed Americans for the problems, suggesting that they buy smaller cars and spend less on consumer goods.

While elected and senior Trump appointed Republicans seem to quiver in fear and refuse to do what they know is right, in my personal opinion, Donald Trump is a clear candidate for removal from office under the 25th Amendment. A mysterious MRI (not routine as we know), that hand discoloration that never heals and causes Trump to resort to makeup, his falling asleep in key meetings (note that since he was standing up for the Wednesday speech, it was only 20 minutes long) and additional indicators that are relevant indicators, to me, of serious mental and physical decline, much more obvious than what we experienced in Joe Biden at the end of his presidency..

Even for Trump’s normal narcissism, his building an unnecessary White House ballroom fit for a king, his obsession with renaming buildings in his honor but most of all his accelerating habit of using misogynistic super-nasty insults or, alternatively, sexual admiration for women around him and expanding blame for all of his failures from Joe Biden to all of the American people who refused accept he “fixed everything.” Many of us, who have dealt with elderly parents or grandparents suffering from Alzheimer’s or other forms of rising symptoms of dementia, have seen this rise in uncontrolled anger and increasing name-calling before.

I’m Peter Dekom, and even as I argued that Joe Biden was not a qualified candidate for a second term, I equally believe that not only is Donald Trump unqualified for his office but that leaving him in the White House will simply compound the damage has already inflicted on America… a fact he seems to realize as he struggles to amplify gerrymandering to leave his House MAGA followers in office to rubber stamp his future orders.