I happened upon Fox News, which announced that Trump was having a rally, yesterday, and the announcer was in North Carolina to follow Trump’s rally. She said his speech would be helped by a “terrifying” CPI report that had just been issued. It was weird, because the stock market was up that day.

They told me to talk about this. (Yes my handlers)

Trump went on stage, with his usually claims of how terrible the economy and only he could fix it. But, it was pretty weird intro:

“They say it’s the most important subject. I’m not sure it is, but they say it is the most important.”

So, he’s basically telling his audience the substance of his talk they can take it or leave it. Just go with the big theme, chant USA at every pause and everything will be ok.

Inflation

The “terrifying” CPI report on inflation was in fact, pretty good with a drop of 0.1% to 2.9%, which many analysts were suggesting that the Fed would cut rates, very slightly in September. Trump focused on the motor vehicle insurance index, which has increased by 19% over the last year.

Wall Street was not terrified. Actually they were pretty happy. The Dow Jones advanced 245 points or 0.61%, and it may be another good day today (Aug 15) based on the futures market. Are they missing something, Donald?

I haven’t really parsed through his speech. In an earlier Trump-Musk interview, Trump said, “I think we have the worst inflation we’ve had in 100 years. They say it’s 48 years, I don’t believe it,” he told Musk. Certainly not today, but in June 2022, inflation hit 9.1%. it was the highest since 1980. The real story is how fast inflation has dropped since then, as the current CPI is 2.9%. The Fed basically withdrew the stimulus required during the Covid-19 years and it worked.

This is typical politics. You hammer at your opponent when things are going bad, and zero credit, when things are improving.

Link: Fact check: Trump made at least 20 false claims in his conversation with Elon Musk

This stuff on inflation is pure Trumpism- if I can tell a small lie, how about an even bigger one. You will hear both Trump and J.D. Vance use the word “fake” a lot, when they are making up things!

We’re being ripped off big time and I am your savior

“Former president Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to open the door to significantly expanding his plans to impose sweeping new tariffs if he returns to office, suggesting an escalation in proposals that many experts already see as likely to cause a global trade war.” Washington Post, Aug 15. This is an excerpt from a full story.

“We’re going to have 10 to 20 percent tariffs on foreign countries that have been ripping us off for years,” Trump said Wednesday. “We’re going to charge them 10 to 20 percent to come in and take advantage of our country.”

Nobody likes to be ripped off, so it is a great one liner. Unfortunately, when we increase tariffs on imports, foreign governments retaliate with equal hikes on the purchase of US goods. The real net result is that tariffs are passed on to consumer, so everyone is paying more in the US and abroad. This depresses economic activity worldwide, and inflation increases.

A lot of what he said, was actually pretty scary and would undermine the recent efforts to reduce inflation. Hopefully, in this case, he doesn’t actually follow through with what he’s proposing.

What doesn’t work – cutting taxes again for wealthy Americans

Deficits occur when the outflow exceeds inflows. Republicans used to remind us of this and running a high deficit will increase interest rates (I am a particular fan of Paul Ryan who really understood this).

“Trump also renewed his call to eliminate taxes seniors pay on their Social Security benefits. He didn’t explain how the plan would work, but critics say it would cost more than a trillion dollars and exhaust federal programs faster.”

See link: Trump’s Social Security tax break could make 2 fragile safety nets even weaker

Hopefully, this will not be enacted. Those retirees whose Social Security benefits are very low, pay little or not taxes. So this benefits the rich at the expense of weakening the safety nets

Healthcare Reform

Obamacare was passed in January 2014, and ever since, Republicans have vowed to repeal it, and replace it with a better program. They almost succeeded in eliminating it. The Supreme Court ruled the law was constitutional. This would have been a massive step backwards for people who needed medical insurance.

So, Trump is finally backing off on this issue. His comments: “We’ll keep it. It stinks. It’s not good. If we can do something better, we’re going to do something with it,” he said at his rally in Asheville, North Carolina.

Illegal Immigration – and old lies

Always a hot topic. Trump always claim that during his time, he got 400 miles of wall built. Actually, only 47 miles of new security fencing was built. Another 33 miles of secondary security fencing was constructed. The vast majority of the 452 miles is repairing or replacing existing structures at the border that had been built by previous US administrations. We share a 2,000 mile border with Mexico.

Trump also attacked Harris as the “border czar.” This is a lie. The responsibility for border security was always with the Department of Homeland Security. Harris was asked to negotiate with Central American leaders on ways to stem the huge surge of migrants from economically depressed areas in their countries. This is an incredibly important to reducing illegal immigration.

Name Calling- old style Trump

We have heard it before with “Sleepy Joe” and “Crooked Joe.” But, neither of these labels will work with Kamala Harris. Nothing partisan, as his nicknames for Republicans are equally abusive, as there is “Lying Ted” for Ted Cruz, “Meatball Ron” for Ron DeSantis (an ethnic slur on his mother’s Italian heritage), “birdbrain” for Nikki Haley and “Mr. Magoo” for former AG Jeff Sessions. See list at the end.

“You know why she hasn’t done an interview? She’s not smart. She’s not intelligent. And we’ve gone through enough of that with this guy, Crooked Joe,” Trump said, using the nickname he often uses for Biden.

Ok, she’s not smart and also she’s not intelligent. Well, it’s a lot better than Mr. Magoo, Meatball Ron, Birdbrain or Lying Ted.

List of Trump’s nicknames: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nicknames_used_by_Donald_Trump

I am still totally amazed at how many people have internet access and will not fact check statements made by Trump.

Stay tuned,

Dave